Burning Candles
by krackensan
Summary: Heero and Duo are partners, but, when Duo disappears, Heero learns just how little he really knows about Duo Maxwell. 1x2. Yaoi. Edited for content.
1. Partners

Kracken

Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning: Male/male sex. Violence, graphic, rough sex, language, attempted NCS, abuse. While my stories always end happily, the getting there is dark and turbulent. Heero has issues. Not a deathfic.

1x2, 3x4, 5x Sally.

Burning Candles

Meetings

"Morning. What's up?"

Heero didn't look aside from his computer as Duo Maxwell slid into a chair by his desk. His partner was slouching, hand rubbing his forehead as if it hurt him, long braid snaking down and swinging as he sighed and stretched out his long legs.

"Double murder, East side," Heero told him."Ambassador from L3 implicated."

"Witnesses?"

"One, a housekeeper."

"Reliable?."

"Unknown."

A woman walked by and deposited two steaming cups into Duo's hands. He gave the tea to Heero and kept the coffee himself.

"You're an angel," he told her, sighed, and sipped gingerly.

"Suggestions?" Heero asked, ignoring the interruption..

"I'll take the questioning. You take the forensics," Duo told Heero and then stood up again. "Info." He held out a hand and Heero deposited a chip onto his palm. Duo grunted, pocketed it, and walked off.

"Jeez," an agent said at another desk, "Did you see that shiner on Maxwell? What's he do, cage matches for a second job?"

Unconcerned, there were many chances in their line of work for bruises and wounds, Heero worked on his part of the case during the morning and then returned to his desk at noon. He found his lunch waiting there for him in Styrofoam containers; rice with pork and tea without any sugar. Duo was there as well, sprawled in a chair and eating a sub sandwich and a soda, his report chip waiting next to Heero's computer. They ate in silence, Heero going over Duo's interview with the housekeeper.

"Any new leads?" Heero asked.

"Boyfriend of the female victim," Duo replied after a long drink of soda."Possible prostitute of the male victim."

"Timetable?"

"Unknown."

"Check in at six."

"Will do. Later."

Duo chucked empty wrappers into the trash and walked away.

"I told you," an agent said. "Looks like a right cross to me. His knuckles are wrapped up too."

"So what?" another agent asked irritably.

"Who's dumb enough to take on a Gundam pilot?" the first agent wondered. "And who managed to land an actual punch? Somebody better check out the morgue..."

"Hey, Yuy!" Heero didn't look over at the agent as he ran bios of Duo's new leads. "You know anything about what happened to Maxwell?"

"No," Heero replied shortly.

"But you work with him," the man persisted, surprised..

"Work being the operative word," Heero growled back.

The man didn't pursue it further and Heero finished his research in peace.

At five thirty, Duo appeared wearing his coat and carrying Heero's coat slung over one arm. He tossed it, Heero caught it deftly, and then put it on. Together, they left Preventer headquarters, grunted a goodbye at the front door, and left in separate directions.

It was a day, just like every other day, in their year long partnership, Heero would now stop at his gym, work out for approximately one hour, return to his apartment, eat dinner, and then go to bed He had thrived in that comforting routine; never questioning it and never considered anything outside of it. Today, however, for the first time, he thought about bruises and taped knuckles and realized that he knew more about the leads in their case than he did about Duo Maxwell. It wasn't entirely his fault, he realized. Duo had cultivated that distance as much as he had, that separation between work and home life. Why? Perhaps they had both needed to escape, in numbing routine, the knowledge that they hadn't been able to live in the new peace that they had sacrificed so much to bring to Earth and Space.

Maybe it was time to change that? Heero considered it, considered the implications, and then realized that he hadn't taken any steps to leave the front of Preventer headquarters. He frowned and shook his head, suddenly determined to forget the errant idea.

"Hey!"

Heero started and reached for his gun as a small package bounced lightly off of his chest and hit the pavement. Heero ignored it to level his gun at whoever had thrown it, but then stood down when he realized that they had disappeared into the heavy traffic whizzing by him. Cautiously, he turned his attention to the package. It had fallen open, it's contents spilled on the sidewalk. A Preventer badge and a note on a card was revealed. Heero bent and picked them up.

Duo Maxwell was inscribed on the Preventer badge. Heero closed one fist on it, his gut clenching with trepidation, as he read the note.

Duo Maxwell won't be coming in to work tomorrow. You were warned Une.

Heero ran back into Preventer headquarters, shoving two agents out of his way as he took the stairs to Une's office. He found her hunkered over stacks of paperwork, chin on fist and glasses sliding down her nose. She blinked at Heero's abrupt entrance, waved off the secretary that had made a faint hearted attempt to stop him, and pushed her glasses up as she straightened.

"The last time you barged into my office like this," She said irritably, "you had just discovered that I had made Duo Maxwell your partner. I wonder what's just as earth shatteringly wrong this time, Agent Yuy?"

Heero tossed badge and note on top of her stack of work. She blinked at them, frowned, and then she cursed as she realized what she was seeing. "Duo's gone?"

"I would assume so," Heero replied, trying to catch his breath. "Do you know who this is from?"

Her eyes left the note and looked up at Heero with a hard expression. "Classified," she replied. "I'll have agents take care of this. You will have to work solo for awhile, but I'm certain you're capable of completing your case load alone." She sighed and said, almost to herself, "Maxwell was a good agent and a war hero. I'll have to prepare a statement for the press."

The implication was that Duo Maxwell was now deceased. Une had clearly dismissed Heero. She wasn't expecting any emotional outbursts from him. They were both soldiers. They had both seen thousand of people die. Une had personally ordered the deaths of an untold number of civilians and soldiers. She had read Maxwell's epitaph just then and expected that to be the end of it.

Heero didn't accept his dismissal. He continued to stand and stare at Duo's badge and the note that had announced, if Une was correct, his death. He felt strangely empty, his mind blank. Heero wasn't sure...

"Yuy?" Une asked, breaking into his thoughts, "Is there anything you would like to add, some observation? If you're waiting for more information, I can't give it."

Heero nodded, once, and then... He wasn't sure how he ended up at his desk, sitting down, and staring at his dark computer screen. Thoughts refused to come and it was a moment before he realized that it had been a voice that had shaken him from his trance.

"Sir?" A young man was waiting expectantly, a report in his hands. "I didn't realize that you were working late, sir. Agent Maxwell wanted me to run these checks and leave them in your in box. Would you like them now?"

Heero nodded, ran a hand over his face, and then took them. "Thank you," he grated automatically.

"I'll be in at six tomorrow, if Agent Maxwell wants any more info," the man told Heero nervously.

Heero felt a chill as he replied, "Agent Maxwell is dead. I'll call you if I need anything further."

"D-dead, sir?" The young man was fair faced and red haired. He went even paler, looking like a ghost as he tried to ask how that could have happened so suddenly, but Heero hunched away from him.

"It's classified," Heero said, cutting him off. He stood, jammed the report into his desk, and had a very strong desire to get out of that place and get away where he could try to understand what he was feeling, why he was finding it hard to process this sudden...

"Are you all right, sir?" the man asked solicitously. "He was your partner... A good man and a top agent... This must be... very hard for you."

Hard for him? "We weren't..." Friends? Close? Anything but passing acquaintances since the war, even though they worked at the same job every day? Heero couldn't find the words to respond and the young man didn't seem to expect any.

"My condolences," The young man told him. "I'm sure there will be a lot of agents at the funeral."

Funeral... Duo was a colonist. Colonists cremated their dead. They didn't indulge in graveyards. There would be a service, Heero was sure, with the body not in attendance. Duo was a war hero after all.

There was another blank period. Preventer headquarters and the young man disappeared. Heero's apartment took their place. He surfaced from his confusion, sitting on his black leather couch with his head in his hands. He had a faint memory of walking, of a night time kaleidoscope of people and places passing him by, but nothing else.

Classified. Duo Maxwell had walked away, following the routine that had defined their lives, and stepped out of that routine into violence and death. Une had made it plain, that finding out who murdered him, and the reason for that killing, were two things Heero might never find out.

Heero took a deep breath. He let it out slowly. He was a loner again. In the morning, he would solve cases by himself without the constant, solid presence of his partner..

There was a knock on Heero's door. He started and stood up. Frowning, he put a hand on the gun at his side and checked the monitor for the cam mounted outside of his front door. The hallway was empty, but a small package was visible on the carpet by his door. Heero eased the door open, then, mindful of ambushes, and used the door as a shield as he retrieved the package.

Simple paper folded over, just like the last package. He knew the reason behind it, so that he wouldn't think that it was a bomb or a chemical agent. The package was already half teased open. Heero closed and locked his door and then went to sit at his dining room table. Gingerly, he upended the contents. A note, and three inches of fiery, brown hair, spilled out onto the table. The hair was still in three knots of a braid and it looked as if it had been dipped in dark blood.

Heero turned the note card over and read;

It's you we really want.

"This is familiar," Duo muttered as he opened eyes on a steel cell, feeling as if his body had been beaten very badly. He remembered the ice cold needle sliding under his ribs, the strong arms grabbing him from behind, and then... the rest was a jumble. He did know that the drugs had taken him under before he could fight, so any damage to his body after that had been purely malicious. He could think of dozens of people who would have wanted the pleasure, on both sides of the law. It was useless to speculate about it, especially when he needed all of his energy to escape.

Duo stifling a groan. He tried to sit up, but was brought up short. Lying on his stomach, he squinted at metal bands locking his arms together and a two link chain that was keeping them attached to the floor. Someone wasn't taking any chances. He also had on a metal collar and certain telltale pricks against his skin warned him it was an electrified device. He tried to make himself more comfortable, but another chain brought him up short. His neck collar was attached almost to the floor on the wall.

Strung out like road kill, Duo thought sourly, and then felt his hair slide around his shoulder before it plopped down by his face. It was half out of it's braid.. Duo shivered and cursed explosively when he saw that some of it was missing. It did tell him one thing. They could have easily taken all of it off for spite, and hadn't. This wasn't someone wanting to get revenge on him. They could have killed him, and hadn't. Someone needed him alive, for a hostage, for leverage, for...

"I have to pee, you bastards!" Duo shouted.

The steel door opened and a man walked in, in his element and at ease. Gray suit, Duo noted, expensive, someone in charge. Two thugs stood behind him, the welcoming committee, he guessed. They were all smiling, pleased with themselves.

The man in charge nodded to a thug. Duo's neck chain was loosened by a control in his hand. Another touch of the control, and Duo was given slack in his arm restraints. A metal bowl was the only toilet and he was forced to use it while they watched and laughed. When he was done, his clothes back in place, the thug retracted the chains and Duo was stretched out again, neck locked to the wall and arms locked to the floor.

"So," Duo said, swallowing in a dry throat. "What's the plan?"

"You're bait," The man in charge told him.

"Ah," Duo didn't ask any more questions and the man raised an eyebrow.

"No curiosity beyond that?" The man wondered.

"Just your name," Duo asked flippantly, "So I can direct my 'fuck you' properly."

The man smirked. "Revenant." He nodded to the thugs. "Bleed him."

The men advanced. Duo steeled himself, not bothering to try and get away. He was ready for kicks and punches. He wasn't ready for them to pull out razors and start cutting through his Preventer uniform to the skin beneath. He bled all right and Revenant pulled out a digital recorder and took a small clip of him after it was done.

"This will get his attention, I think," Revanant chuckled and tossed the camera to one of the thugs. "Drop it into his email."

Revenant crouched by Duo, reached out and wiped bangs from Duo's glaring eyes, and blew him a kiss, before he straightened and walked with his thugs towards the door.

"Revenant!" Duo called hoarsely.

Revenant paused.

"Fuck you," Duo grated.

Revenant laughed and continued on his way, closing the door with a loud, metallic, bang behind him.

"Jeezus!" Duo hissed as he tried to ease his stinging cuts. "I hope it's not Heero they're trying to get to rescue me or I won't be bait, I'll be dead meat."

TBC 


	2. Under the Skin

Kracken

Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning: Male/male sex. Violence, graphic, rough sex, language, attempted NCS, abuse. While my stories always end happily, the getting there is dark and turbulent. Heero has issues. Not a deathfic.

1x2, 3x4, 5x Sally.

Burning Candles

Under the Skin

Heero rubbed at his forehead as he stared at the blinking curser on his computer screen. His email was empty. He should have had at least a dozen emails pertaining to his cases, but... the empty inbox was a mystery his aching head and depressed psyche weren't ready to deal with.

"Andrews!" Heero snapped and a heavy set, older man sat up abruptly at his desk nearby. "Find out where my email is."

"Yes, sir," Andrews replied quickly.

As the tech scrambled to obey, Heero pushed away from his desk and walked away. He needed tea, a fact that he had tried to ignore for most of the morning while he tried to obey his own orders and solve cases. It had always been his first contact with Duo every morning. His partner would sit down at his desk and offer him tea. Having that chair remain empty, and not having his usual back and forth exchange , had made Heero's gut clench and had seemed as wrong as the sun not coming up in the morning. He remembered how he had almost stopped Duo and had almost engaged him in conversation... everything might have been different now if he had just followed that impulse.

Heero entered the lounge, ignored the other agents there, and fumbled to find the hot tea selection on the bank of refreshment machines. A prickle between his shoulders alerted him to the fact that he was being stared at. Agents lost their partners far too often. Sympathies were usually delivered in those situations, but Heero hoped that no one would approach him. He didn't want that validation of Duo's demise, had, in the case of the tea, refused to do anything to bring that fact to mind.

"Heero, watch out," an agent warned.

Heero turned quickly, reaching for his gun as he spotted a distraught boy coming towards him in civilian clothes. Heero knew the other agents were on the alert too, so he felt safe enough to allow the boy to approach him.

"Are you Heero Yuy, Duo's partner?" The boy demanded.

Heero narrowed eyes at him. The boy was short and his hair was long, rough cut, and blonde. His rail thin body swam in his loose street clothes and over large tennis shoes. Heero estimated that he was probably only fourteen years old.

"How do you know that?" Heero wondered.

"Duo has pictures," the boy replied, but swept that away by demanding, "Where is he? He didn't come home and, when I call here, they tell me it's 'classified'."

Heero jumped to an immediate conclusion about who was facing him and he felt an unexpected anger that had only a little to do with the boy's age. He wasn't sure how to deliver the news to someone that their lover was dead, especially when the survivor was an underage boy. The older agent saw his hesitation and took over.

"He's dead, son," the grizzled agent told him bluntly. "He was the victim of a murder."

The boy went white, his mouth hanging open. He finally choked out, "W-Where's his... body?"

The older agent sighed and scrubbed at a crew cut. "There isn't one, yet."

The boy grasped at that, " Then you don't know for sure!" he retorted. "He's a goddam Gundam Pilot. He doesn't get dead, man!"

He took a step towards Heero, demanding," You're looking for him, right?"

Heero shook his head. "Other agents are working on the case."

The boy snarled, "Don't you care?! He talked all the time about you! Said you were skin to skin, man! Now, you're letting him get jumped and you're not making any shit about it?"

"Who are you son?" The older agent asked, trying to come to Heero's rescue.

"Nobody," the boy shot back. "Seems Duo's nobody, too, if you won't help him!" He made a rude gesture and turned away. As he strode back to the door, he shot over his shoulder, "Fuck all of you! You wanna give up on him, go ahead, but we won't! We'll look for him!"

Everyone watched him go, but then the older agent turned to Heero, confused. "We?" he repeated.

"Unknown," Heero replied, unsure how to admit that he knew so little about his deceased partner.

Heero left the lounge and returned to his desk, forgetting about his tea. He was met by Andrews. The man took one look at Heero's dark expression and swallowed as he moved to keep some space between them.

"Uh,"Andrews cleared his throat and tried again as Heero sat down and stared at the still blank inbox on his computer screen. "Does someone else have access to your emails?" he asked. "Someone gave an access code, but I don't have clearance to find out who it belongs to."

"Une," Heero grunted, and Peacecraft." He picked up his phone, while Andrews made a hasty retreat, and called Une's office. She answered without turning on her vid feed.

"Une." There was a tone to her voice, expectant.

"Yuy," he responded. "My emails have been diverted."

"Necessary," she replied shortly.

"Explanation?" he prodded.

"Classified," she replied and crisply, "Get back to work, agent."

"Acknowledged."

Heero hung up his phone and sat very still. The anger that had started when he had made the assumption that the boy and Duo might have been lovers, grew into another kind of anger all together. He smelled conspiracy in the air and it was his experience that nations fell when that happened. He had given up far too much for peace to sit back and refuse to defend it when he smelled danger in the air.

"Your partner hasn't answered our little email," Revenant told Duo as he stood over him in his cell.

"What a surprise," Duo responded sarcastically. He tried to make himself comfortable in his awkward position and then gave it up as he twisted to glare at Revenant. "Do you think I can get a pillow or something?"

Revenant sighed. "I think I'm going to see the end of your bravado very shortly. Time to expand on our threat." He motioned to his thugs and they moved towards Duo with eager grins.

"Where is Duo?"

Heero stared at Quatre Winner standing outside of his apartment door. Two of his men were ranged behind him, one watching the hallway and another watching Heero.

"He's dead," Heero told him in a flat tone.

Quatre shuddered and his eyes filled with intense pain. "Dead?" he whispered back. "How can that....." He composed himself with an effort. Despite the fact that he had grown taller over the years, he still seemed like a very young man in his expensive business suit. He motioned shakily towards Heero's apartment. "May I come in?"

"Yes," Heero stepped aside.

Quatre signaled for his guards to wait outside and he closed the door on them before he let his emotions have free rein again. He touched Heero's arm, his blue eyes swimming with grief as he asked, "How did it happen?"

Heero moved to his computer on a nearby table and shut it down, blocking Quatre's view of it as he did so. Then he turned to face Quatre again. "He was targeted, and killed, after work. Une's investigating the crime. I don't have any other information. She told me that the case was classified."

"Classified?" Quatre repeated as he sat heavily in a wooden chair.

Heero perched on the edge of the table containing his computer and nodded. "Une seemed very certain that Duo was dead. We received part of his braid." Quatre gasped at that. "His badge," Heero continued, "and several notes. The braid was stained with Duo's blood."

Quatre let out a shuddering breath, finding some hope as he asked, "Then you don't know that he's dead for certain?"

"No,"Heero admitted and his pessimism was strong enough for Quatre to sense.

"But you think he is?" Quatre pressed. "Why?"

"Une was very certain," Heero replied and felt troubled by that. It was as if she had known it was going to happen; inevitable. He narrowed his eyes at Quatre. "How did you find out that Duo was missing?" Missing. He kept from wincing at that slip. It was as if some part of him, deep down, wasn't as pessimistic as the rest of him.

"I was called by Duo's landlord," Quatre admitted hesitantly. "Did he ever tell you... about our arrangement?"

Arrangement. Heero felt that anger rise again. It confused him, that he wanted to believe the worst of Duo. The worst? It was hard to understand why he was feeling that Duo having a relationship was somehow wrong.

"Heero?" Quatre raised eyebrows, not understanding Heero's sudden tenseness.

Heero stood up and paced to a window. He admitted slowly, "I don't know anything about Duo."

"But...." Quatre replied, confused, "You were partners..."

"Partners," Heero stressed. "We didn't interact outside of work." That sounded cold, mechanical, unfeeling, but Heero knew that their working relationship had not been any of those things. They had been there for each other, solid, dependable, reliable... like clockwork. Heero knew he wasn't wrong in believing that they had both felt comfortable with that, with order in their lives where there had never been any before.

"Duo didn't talk about you very much," Quatre told him. His eyes roved the small apartment. "He did have photos, though.... I thought..." He decided not to voice what he had thought and returned to the question at hand. "Well.... He had problems with handling money," Quatre told Heero. He smiled slightly at the memory, but it didn't touch the pain in his blue eyes."I made certain that you were all given large trust funds, that you were taken care of if you so desired. Duo repeatedly asked for more money, though. He couldn't stop buying things." The smile contained a bit more humor, but then it faded as he said, "I gave him a money manager, and a budget, and then I made certain that his landlord was paid out of a bank account that Duo couldn't access. I was also paying the landlord to keep an eye on Duo. He was the one who reported to me when Duo failed to return home. Duo's young and single, that might not be notable in most circumstances, but he had always come home before, when not on a case. When the Landlord checked with Preventer headquarters, he was told that Duo was not at work, nothing more."

"And you were told the same?" Heero guessed.

Quatre nodded. "That's why I came to your apartment, to find out what is going on. When a war hero, and one of the top agents in the Preventers goes missing, and no one has an explanation, I find that highly suspicious."

"Une said she would make a statement to the press," Heero replied carefully.

"I have no doubt that she will," Quatre responded in a way that told him exactly what he thought of that. "Now tell me, Heero Yuy," Quatre demanded, blue eyes looking at Heero sternly, "What do you know and what do you suspect?"

Heero tensed. "I've already told you what I-"

"You turned your computer off when I arrived," Quatre replied impatiently. "You were doing something that you didn't want me to see. Now, stop the evasive maneuvers, Heero, and tell me what you suspect has happened to Duo."

"I didn't retrieve any information," Heero replied, feeling odd, feeling as if he had just returned to the war and that Quatre was someone he could trust, someone who was a comrade in arms.

"Because I interrupted you," Quatre surmised. He stood and walked over to Heero's computer. He turned it on. "Proceed."

Heero felt that he was at a crossroads, that he could tell Quatre to leave and return to his routine, his solitary work, or he could break the rules, risk his job, risk his new life, to find out what had happened to his partner. It wouldn't bring him back, knowing, but if his kidnaping was part of something larger, if Une was conspiring to keep Duo's murderer's hidden...

"It could be much larger than Duo," Quatre said, echoing Heero's own thoughts. "We both sacrificed too much not to find out."

"And if it was a simple murder?" Heero wondered in a subdued voice. "If Une is only keeping the details under wraps because of an ongoing case against his murderer?"

"The case won't be compromised by our investigation," Quatre assured him."But sacrifices might have to be made."

Heero nodded, accepting that there might be harsh consequences for him if he as discovered. He sat down at his computer and began hacking into the Preventer database. Quatre stood at his shoulder, glancing from the screen to Heero. Finally he said, "You are upset by his death."

Hero's typing paused, his frown deepened, and then he replied as he continued typing, "He was a good partner."

"Ah." Quatre was silent for long minutes and then he said, "I worried about you both. I was glad when you were assigned together. I think that you gave Duo some discipline and that he gave you-"

Heero grunted, interrupting, "Une's diverted my emails again. I'll search for backlogs."

"Again?" Quatre mulled that over. "Why would Une take your emails?"

"The suspects contacted me, personally, leaving me a note," Heero told him as he hacked deeper into the system. "I suspect that they may have attempted to email me as well."

"Why?" Quatre wondered.

Heero replied, "They said that it was me they wanted, not Duo."

"They want to kill you?" Quatre's eyes widened. "Is Une concerned about that?"

"She took the items that were sent to me and once again informed me that the case did not concern me," Heero replied. He paused in his typing and Quatre leaned in to read the screen.

"Deleted. " Quatre frowned, confused. "Why would she delete emails that might be important to her case?"

"They are tagged as having been opened," Heero pointed out. "Perhaps there was nothing important in them?"

"Here." Quatre pointed to a string of deleted files. "Pictures? Were you expecting evidence photos of any kind?"

"No," Heero tried to make sense out of the codes and jumbled file names. The delete backups looked as if someone had tried to burn them as well as delete. What it had left in it's wake were bits and pieces. He chased a small string of code and found it's source unexpectedly. "I may be able to open this pic, but it's corrupted."

Quatre was startled. "A virus trap? She must have suspected that you would try to access them."

"It's very sophisticated," Heero told him. "We may have only seconds before it destroys my system.

"Backup all of your data," Quatre suggested. "I'll buy you a new laptop."

"Already backed up," Heero replied and Quatre chuckled at Heero's efficiency. "Ready to deploy?"

"Ready," Quatre affirmed.

"Deploying," Heero announced and opened the file.

Very slowly, the picture opened. Quatre's hand slammed down on Heero's shoulder and squeezed hard as he swore in choked Arabic. They had just enough time to realize that the figure hanging from restraints, naked to the waist, covered in blood and obvious shock gun burns, was Duo, before the screen flickered, flashed, and then began scrolling virus. 


	3. Down into Darkness

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off o this.  
Warnings:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, abuse, torture, heavy, dark angst, attempted NCS, not a deathfic.

Burning Candles

Down into Darkness

"It's simple, Maxwell," the guard said in his ear. "Every time you say no to one of our commands, you get shocked right in the gonads, got it?"

Duo was gasping, naked below the waist, legs spread wide and strapped into place on a table reminiscent of an obstetrics table, his arms were locked behind his back and his neck chain drawn tight into a lock behind his head. Immobilized, he had been unable to stop them from inserting the device under the skin behind his testicles.

The guard showed him a hand held control and smiled evilly. "I think you probably need a demonstration."

"No," Revenant ordered sharply. "As long as he follows orders, he is safe. I want him to trust us." He came into Duo's view. "Don't be stupid, Maxwell. Do as you're told." He began to turn away again, but Duo called out sharply.

"Better not leave me alone with sicko here," Duo warned, "or he'll take advantage of the position, if you know what I mean?"

Revenant grimaced in disgust. "Only if he wants to die."

The guard tightened his grip on the control, furious, but he didn't push the button that would deliver to Duo the electric charge.

"Saving that pleasure for yourself?" Duo retorted.

Revenant slowly looked over Duo's body in a way that made Duo squirm nervously. "I don't mix pleasure with business," he finally replied and nodded to the guard. "Release him and take him to Bertram." Revenant added, "And Maxwell, don't try to remove the device, it has sensors that will trigger a massive shock to your system if you attempt it. I've heard of men living for days in absolute agony."

Revenant left with his guard and aids came forward to release Duo from all his restraints. His arms refused to work until they massaged them back to life and his neck, having been restrained at sharp angles for days, was now throbbing with spasms and giving him a tremendous headache.. He ignored the pain, sat up, and snatched his pants from a nearby table. He put them on, glaring at the aids and the guard. "Shows over," he growled.

The aids backed away nervously, but the guard was grabbing Duo by his braid and yanking him off of the table. Duo hissed at the pain between his legs, but he stood.

"So, what now?" Duo asked as he was prodded towards a door. His bare feet were cold on the freezing floor but no one gave him back his shoes."Why the change in scenery?"

"Seems your Preventer buddies don't give a damned about you," the guard sneered. "We didn't even get an email from them."

"You thought Heero was going to come running after me?" Duo surmised. "You thought he'd be wearing this ball shocker instead of me right now, right?"

"Revenant wanted the best," the guard admitted."But Yuy's been too alert, too security conscious to give us an opportunity to kidnap him. Revenant thought he could convince him to come here, bargain for you, give us a chance to capture him."

"I'm the best, you fucker!" Duo snarled.

"No," the guard replied, "You're 'make do' and boss man isn't happy about that at all. If I were you, I'd jump through flaming hoops, if he tells you. He's mad enough to do without if you're too much trouble."

"Why the advice?" Duo wanted to know. "What's it to you if I get my balls fried off?"

"Nothing," The guard snickered. "But when I do fry them off, I can truthfully tell Revenant that I warned you." He leaned close to Duo and said. "I'll enjoy making you roll over, beg, fetch, and lick my boots. I'll enjoy it a lot."

Duo's reply was to toss his head sharply sideways, cracking the guard in the face. The man dropped like a sack of rocks, unconscious. Duo grinned and retrieved the control and the guards gun. "Why are guards always so fucking stupid?"

"Luckily," Revenant's disembodied voice replied all around Duo, "I am intelligent enough to realize that and to have other controls for your shock device. Sirtus, fifteen seconds, if you please?"

The shock erupted from between Duo's legs and he screamed and fell, writhing on the floor, hands tearing at his clothes to get at the device. Fifteen heartbeats as red washed over his eyes and his head felt as if it would explode. Fifteen breaths as agony encompassed his entire being and he threw up. Fifteen lifetimes before the pain ceased and left him in a tangled, semi unconscious heap of sweat, tears, vomit, and torn clothes.

Someone was looking down at him. The face of Revenant drifted in the red haze.

"I think we've learned our lesson, yes? Nod or I'll shock you again," Revenant warned. Duo nodded and Revenant's tone became pleased. "Do everything you are told and you will be treated well. Displease me and ruin my project, and I will make you truly suffer. Understood? Answer me."

Duo wiped the vomit from his face, glared at it, glared at Revenant, and then said distinctly, with a hard, fierce smile, "Fuck you."

Revenant frowned and then said coldly, "Fifteen seconds, Sirtus."

The world shattered in pain.

"Heero!" Quatre choked out. "What-"

Heero raised a hand. He was as white as a sheet but he was staring at the scrolling code on the computer screen intently. The code was easily decipherable as Preventer made and coming directly from Commander Une's office.

"'I.. I have the photo memorized," Heero said at last, blinking and turning his ruined computer off. He bowed his head, hands clasped between his knees. His shoulders trembled very faintly. "I need another computer as quickly as possible. I will have to set up a blind account and reroute connections so that Une doesn't tap into it." His voice steadied and grew monotone. His mind centered and shut off his shock. It was difficult. Something wanted to explode inside of him and his hands were flexing, opening and closing against his will, as if they wanted to grab a weapon and...

Quatre ran hands over his face. He sat down heavily, mimicking Heero's posture unconsciously. "He's alive..."

"Perhaps," Heero corrected softly.

"Why?" Quatre looked at the dead computer as if he could still see the picture there. "Why would Une keep this a secret? Why steal this from your emails?"

"The first note," Heero tried to stop his trembling and failed. "It seemed to say that Duo's kidnaping had been payback for something Une had done. But, if that's so, then why send these things to me? Why send me a message telling me that these people wanted me instead?"

Quatre swallowed hard, wiped at his eyes, and then replied, "They took Duo because they couldn't get to you." He glanced at Heero. "I'm guessing that you still keep up your security habits from the war?" When Heero nodded, Quatre nodded as well. "Yes, so..." He cleared his throat, trying to speak through his emotions. "I think.... I think someone wanted something from Une. Her refusal triggered retaliation, in the form of kidnaping her best agent and... torturing him. Perhaps, by sending emails to you, proof that Duo is being tortured and that it is Une's fault, they hope to goad you into enacting revenge on her."

Heero frowned. "Why not simply kill her?"

Quatre's eyebrows rose. "Kill her?" he echoed.

Heero nodded, once, frowning, "Her security is poor. They could easily kill her."

"Perhaps they wish to bargain with her still, force her hand with the threat against Duo and the possibility that you will find out and kill her yourself?" Quatre reasoned.

"No," Heero argued. "Unless they are stupid and unprofessional, I don't think that could be true."

"What is your guess?" Quatre wondered, at a loss.

Heero thought for long minutes while Quatre waited patiently. Finally, Heero came to one conclusion that was logical, though hard to accept. "They kidnaped Duo. They are sending proof of his torture to me, not Une. I am Duo's partner. Usually, partners are very close, very emotional about their working relationship. I think their plan was for me to try to rescue Duo, even offer myself in his place. That would explain why they would reveal that I was their goal, not Duo."

Quatre frowned. "And where does Une fit into this?"

"Once I acquire a computer, I intend to find out.," Heero promised."If I'm the one that they want, one of the stolen emails may have a meeting place specified."

"The picture," Quatre wondered. "Does it have any clues?"

Heero closed his eyes and concentrated. " The walls are fortified steel, riveted. The floor is sealed against chemical spills. The chains they are using are new... stainless, the type one might use on a ship."

"A tanker ship?" Quatre guessed eagerly.

"Perhaps," Heero replied cautiously. "Duo is wearing...not his uniform pants. They are the kind a surgeon might wear, cotton, drawstring. His shoes are gone. His cuts are consistent with a razor edge. His shock burns are not severe. They are being careful, keeping him undamaged." Heero trembled a little more. "He still has his braid. I was afraid..." He choked down on that. After receiving some of it, he had been afraid that they had cut off all of it. "The men attacking him... middle aged, not military, they look sloppy... tattoo in Armenian on one, scar on left temple of the other. Clothes nondescript. No uniforms."

Heero opened his eyes. "Nothing to pinpoint location," he finished and stood. "I need to protect any future emails from Une in case they try to contact me again."

"Heero," Quatre picked his words carefully as he stood as well. "You weren't able to answer their emails. If Une didn't answer them, it's possible that..."

"That they killed Duo?" Heero finished and frowned. "Unlikely. I'm convinced they are keeping him operational for some purpose other than to use him as bait to acquire me."

"Operational?" Quatre snapped back angrily. "He's not a machine. "

"No. He's a Gundam pilot," Heero replied stiffly, "and we're not weapons anyone destroys lightly. I will assume that he is alive. It is possible that he will free himself."

"Did you see the same picture that I did or is your memory faulty?" Quatre retorted hotly. "He was chained and being tortured! If this is your way of saying that you won't pursue this any further..."

"Our main investigation has to be Une's motivation for keeping this incident classified," Heero told him."She is the head of Preventers, the only armed police force in the Earthsphere at this time. If her loyalty is compromised, then many people are in danger. Peace is threatened. I cannot ignore that threat and pursue Duo instead. He knew that an agent's life might be called on to be sacrificed for the greater good when he joined."

Quatre was outraged. "How can you..." He closed his eyes, nostrils flaring, and then he looked at Heero hard, his blue eyes piercing. "I know you feel for him. Your fear is burning like fire all around you, whether you wish to acknowledge it or not. Perhaps you can lock it away from your heart and be the good soldier, but I can't. Pursue Une, but I'm sending my own men after Duo."

"Where will they look?" Heero wondered skeptically.

"The oceans, the boats, ships that carry chemical loads," Quatre replied. "All of Earth and Space if they have to."

Quatre strode to the door, but he paused with his hand on the knob as he said to Heero, without turning, "Perhaps your course of action is the right one, but you could at least have the decency to look upset over that decision!"

The door banged as Quatre slammed it shut behind him. Heero stared at the wood for long moments and then he took a shuddering breath.

"I've never seen anyone chance a second charge," a nervous voice said. "Heart failure is a real possibility if he allows a third." Hands touched Duo, cold and impersonal. "He went into shock. His eyes were tracking. He suffered muscle spasm for twenty minutes. All indications of dangerous trauma. If you want this man to pilot, I do suggest that you persuade him in another fashion."

Revenant's voice came from Duo's other side, frustrated and very angry. "What do you suggest instead?"

"Pain does not seem to motivate him, nor self preservation," the other man mused."I suggest drugs."

"No, he can't be mentally impaired when he runs the system," Revenant told him and then corrected himself, "If he can run the system. Yuy was a definite. This man's only potential."

Revenant's voice came very close, as if he were leaning over Duo. Duo remained motionless, the throbbing pain of his head, stressed muscles, and his shock implant making it hard to stay still and breathe evenly. "He is very... volatile, emotional, sure of himself, " Revenant continued, "Men like that... do you know what they hate worse than anything?"

"Sir?"

"Humiliation, helplessness... and having what they hold dear threatened," Revenant replied. "Every man has a weakness, Dr., even someone like him. We just have to find out what that weakness is. Take his clothes and throw him back into his cell... let's start with humiliation while my men find out if he has anyone in his life he holds dearer than his stubbornness."

Tbc

see Kracken's original, published yaoi fiction, The Angel Within, at under Kracken Latest updates at:  
and for general fanfiction talk: 


	4. Honor

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off o this.  
Warnings:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, abuse, torture, heavy, dark angst, attempted NCS, not a deathfic.

Burning Candles

Honor

"I think this is good for my back. I feel the kinks loosening already," Duo quipped hoarsely. His two guards remained silent staring at him steadily.

Duo tried, for the hundredth time, to find a more comfortable position than the one that his captors had allowed him. His arms were locked behind him to the wall, a curved support under his back making him bend backwards. His head tilted back as well and his metal neck collar was attached to the same chain that was forcing his arms backwards. Two chains were locked around his knees, attached to a crossbar over his head. Those chains ran through two metal loops there and then ran back down to a ring and the chain attached to his neck and arms. He could hold his legs down against the drag of the chain, but that made the chain tighten and pull his collar tight into his throat. Duo could over come the pain, but it took strength to keep that position and, again and again, his strength ran out and he was forced to let his legs dangle from the chains, knees apart and his naked body vulnerable to the steady stare of his guards.

It was humiliating. Duo couldn't lie to himself about that. Revenant even changed the guards periodically to keep that humiliation fresh. Being vulnerable, hair unbraided, and held in place as if he were some whore offering himself to two strangers, Duo couldn't help the crawling sickness in his gut. He knew the routine, though. Most of a man's defenses against coercion were in his psyche. Honor, stubbornness, and a sense of personal power could make a man proof against a lot of things. Soften the target, put him off balance, and make him emotionally vulnerable, and torture was a lot more effective at breaking a man.

Duo let his legs dangle again, feeling a cold draft travel over the insides of his legs. He shivered. There was still burning pain between his legs from the second shock His muscles were still throbbing from the spasms, and his head was still pounding. He forced himself to stay alert, though, instead of seeking the comfort of sleep. He had to watch his guards. He had to find a particular man.

After the third set of guards, Duo finally spotted the right man. He kept his eyes almost closed, his breathing even, but he saw, through his lashes, when one of the new guards let his glance slide between Duo's legs. It was only for a moment, the man didn't want his fellow guard catching him at it, but it was enough for Duo.

Duo let his legs hang and even let them dangle open further than he had too. Again, he saw the guard's eyes flick to him and the man clearly swallowed. The other guard looked disgusted and bored, forced to watch Duo because of orders, but not really focusing on any point of his body.

Duo faked dreaming, muttering under his breath and moving. He arched his back and made an undulating motion with his hips. Once, twice, and then he was still again. The sickness in his gut grew and the humiliation burned through him worse than the pain between his legs.

"I forgot, " the one guard told the other, "Bernstein wanted you to inventory that shipment of weapons before down time tonight."

"Dammit!" The other guard grumbled. "That'll take an hour at least!" He glared at Duo. "That means overtime. Stupid shit! I should jam my gun into his ass and empty the clip."

Duo kept himself from wincing. He moved in his 'sleep' again, bending back and exposing even more of himself to the one guard he had targeted.

"I could cover for you," The target suggested. "Who's going to know? Get done, get back. It's not like this piece of trash is going anywhere."

The other man grunted, thought it over, and then agreed. "Okay. You rat on me though, Jim, and I'll be jamming my gun up your ass, got that?"

"Uh, yeah," The target replied nervously.

The door opened and closed. Duo opened his legs even more and leaned back, trying to give himself as much slack in the chain as possible. He wasn't surprised to hear a zipper going down, but he was startled when his target landed on top of him without warning, grabbed handfuls of his loose hair, and began viciously trying to find his entrance. His tongue lapped at Duo's face.

"Sick shit!" Duo exclaimed. He sank his teeth into the side of his attacker's face and tasted blood and flesh. He bit until his teeth met.

The guard jerked backwards, screaming, but Duo's knees caught him with a clash of chains, locking on the man's head and neck and squeezing tight. Duo twisted his hips violently and there was an audible snap as the guard's neck broke. The guard collapsed, twitching in his death throes, and his face slammed into Duo's gut and hipbone.

Duo gasped, the pain almost taking him under. He panting, blinked rapidly, and then forced himself to work through the pain as he stretched his bare foot out and tried to snag the man's keys with his toes. It was hard. He fumbled again and again. "Would be good to be a monkey right now," he said through gritted teeth.

"A monkey wouldn't be nearly as entertaining," Revenant said as he clapped his hands slowly in applause.

A man pulled the dead guard off of Duo and Duo was able to see Revenant and his thugs near the open door.

"Let me guess," Duo sighed, relaxing back into his chains in defeat. "Monitoring devices?"

"Why yes. Three points for you, Agent Maxwell," Revenant replied. He sounded amused, but there was a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Heh, took awhile for you to get here," Duo snorted. "Guess you were getting off on watching him rape me."

Revenant frowned. He approached, stared down at Duo coldly, and then ordered, "Five second charge and then take him down to the hanger, hang him upside down naked in front of the crews, and make sure you secure him well this time." He stared down at the dead guard. "Incompetent. Insubordinate," he said angrily. "At least you saved me the trouble of having him killed, Maxwell."

"Happy to oblige," Duo shot back with a grin and then he bit down on his own tongue as the charge snapped through every nerve in his body.

Heero stood in the darkness of the apartment with a new laptop under his arm. He hadn't had to break in, the landlord had responded quickly to Quatre's name and his Preventer badge. Heero should have been home, resting, getting his other cases taken care of, and planning his assault on Une's records. The last place he should have been at that hour was Duo Maxwell's apartment.

He turned on the light and a very clean apartment greeted his eyes. Hardwood floors, Danish furniture, wool carpets; everything was blonde wood and pale cream. An entertainment system dominated one wall and a gallery of photos and artwork covered almost all of the others. Heero slowly put down his computer on a low table and then began moving along those walls, seeing a pattern to the pictures at once. Duo had been an annoying shutterbug during the war. It seemed that every photo had been framed and arranged meticulously in order of date. After those photos, there were others, Quatre, Trowa, Wu Fei, and some photos of Heero working at Headquarters. All of them were from after the war and, except for Heero, all the others were dressed in casual clothes. He revised that when he saw photos of himself walking along city streets, entering and leaving his own apartment, and getting ready to get into his car. Heero frowned, feeling as if he had failed to protect himself somehow. If Duo had been an enemy... but he wasn't. He was a terrorist and a Preventer agent on a par with Heero himself.

Heero moved to another wall and saw hundreds of framed photos of children of various ages. They were all lovingly labeled with their names and dated. Some had framed artwork beside them of childish subjects. Heero saw the apartment mirrored in many of those photos, but most repeated was a place that looked like some sort of institution. His guess was confirmed when Heero saw a photo of the front of the building and Duo having his picture taken with a group of adults. There was a letter attached to that photo.

"Carmen Sanchez Home for Children," Heero read, "honors Duo Maxwell for his wonderful outreach program for troubled street children."

Heero went back to the photos of the children. He looked for one in particular. He found it, a prominent photo of the young man who had confronted Heero at Preventer headquarters. He looked street tough, Heero thought, angry, and annoyed at having his photo taken. It was a look that Heero was mirroring in several of his photos. There were younger children behind the boy, looking just as tough. The caption underneath read, Maxwell's kids. The name under the boy was Jake.

Heero felt a sudden wave of relief. Duo was taking care of street children, working with an institution. Jake was one of those children. Heero wondered how he could have thought he was anything else. It wasn't logical. There hadn't been anything to support that assumption.

Heero turned to the photo of Duo, studying his shy smile, his hand being shaken by the hand of an older man standing next to him. He looked different. Heero moved closer, trying to understand why. Happy, relaxed, accepting an honor with modesty, looking very young and unsure... that wasn't the Duo Maxwell from the war, the one he had worked with for a year. The man he knew was hard as nails, all business, ready to crack a joke and be friendly, but always on edge, always prepared, and always on the move to solve a case. The man he saw in several other photos, playing baseball with his kids, basketball, soccer, working with them at martial arts, and just being with them in friendly settings, looked... Heero searched for an apt description and came up wanting. He could only think 'proud', but that wasn't exactly it.

Heero reached up and almost touched Duo's face. He lowered his hand, confused. His mind kept running over the year, kept going from day to day, noting how rigid and unchanging it had all been and how he had welcomed that. When he parted with Duo each day, he had gone back to his apartment and carried that routine there as well, he'd never imagined that Duo had done something completely different, had moved from one world into another and had filled his weekends with children.

"Are you supposed to be here?" A very young girl was peeking around the edge of the still open door, looking nervous. "I'll tell my mama on you."

"Do you live here?" Heero wondered.

"Next door," the girl replied.

"I'm... a friend," Heero managed to reply.

"Oh..." The girl looked around the empty apartment. "Mr. M's a nice guy. He coming back soon?"

Heero replied without thinking, "Yes." though he wasn't sure why.

"You bringing him back here?" The girl wondered. "It's getting late. I should be in bed but I heard you talking with the landlord and Kitty was scratching at our door. I thought you probably let her out by mistake and I brought her back."

Heero noticed then that she was wearing a nightgown. "Kitty?" he echoed and then saw the black and white cat looking at him suspiciously from under the coffee table.

"You better go get Mr. M. now," the girl told him as she turned to go. "It's past his bed time too."

Heero stared at the empty doorway and then looked back at Duo's photo. The urge to find Duo almost overwhelmed him. The girls' voice seemed to echo in that empty apartment. 'You better go get Mr. M.' Heero reached up to the photo and he did touch it this time. He whispered, "Duo. I want to, but... I can't."

I can't do that again, Duo thought as he curled up, naked and shivering, in his cell. His muscles wouldn't stop trembling, his head was seething with pain, his tongue was swollen from being bitten, and the pain between his legs was constant and searing. He could roll all of that up and shove it into a place where he could deal with it and continue to rebel, but he couldn't stop his body from flatly refusing to endure another shock Just the thought of it made him cringe and pant. Nerves effected the mind in a very powerful way and there was a point where the mind made reaction automatic: a self preservation trip switch that couldn't be over come.

Duo rubbed at his raw ankles under the metal ankle bands. After hanging from the overhead struts of the hanger for an hour, and coming to consciousness halfway through, he had to thank small blessings that he hadn't had to endure the full hour. The humiliation of having workers staring at him, walking around him, or just watching him idly from their work stations, had only been part of it. The intense agony of having metal bands digging into his feet and ankles had been worse. He had tried to distract himself by trying to see what they were working on, but his eyesight quickly blurred from the pressure of his blood pounding in his head and he couldn't focus enough to make a coherent guess as to what all the separate parts in the hanger might make when assembled. His attempts were made even harder by workers walking by and taking sadistic pleasure in making him swing. After they had finally taken him down, they had marched him naked, stumbling and shaking from reaction, to a pitch black cell and locked him in.

Duo still had the loose chains attached to his shackles. They dragged heavily and clinked together as he attempted to feel the limits of his prison. Weakness wouldn't allow much of that, but he was able to go far enough to discover that small sheets of slick paper covered the walls. He was left in solitary silence for some time to ponder that and he knew it was for a purpose. When Revenant's voice sounded all around him, Duo had made a guess that had chilled his blood. Revenant didn't leave him any doubt.

"You are incredible," Revenant told him. "I've never met a man who could take such torture and stay defiant. Your loyalty to your government is to be commended. I will send them a letter, along with the photos that were taken of your latest punishment, describing, in detail, how you endured with honor."

Duo ducked his head, closing his eyes tightly, and just tried to breathe as he imagined all of his comrades seeing him hanging naked.

"I was hoping to convince you to see reason," Revenant continued, "but there is only one threat that a man, who cares so little about his own skin, will hear.. and that is to the people he is trying so desperately to protect." Duo could almost sense the smile. "That's where you draw your strength, isn't it? Not from your own self worth, or your confidence that you will defeat me in the end, but in that you are protecting people by your sacrifice."

The lights went on. Duo was tempted to keep his eyes closed. He sat against a cold wall and leaned his head back against it as he slowly opened his eyes, knowing already what he was going to see. Pictures covered the walls, pictures of his kids, pictures of the institute, and pictures of armed snipers ghosting on the fringes of where those children were playing in oblivious innocence. There were also pictures from his apartment, pictures of the children with bull's eyes drawn over them in red.

Duo wiped at the dried blood on his face that had come from his bitten tongue. He knew he couldn't reply, it was too hard to talk, but he also didn't think that he could have even if his tongue had been all right. His trembling had increased dramatically and he was unconsciously curling into a tight ball at the mere thought of voicing a curse or a refusal. He couldn't endure that shock again. His body wouldn't let him.

"You see that I'm willing to do a great deal to achieve my goal," Revenant continued. "I need you to pilot. I need your skills. I need your mind. I will have them, Duo Maxwell. Now... nod your agreement to become a part of my project. If you refuse to, I will immediately call one of my men and one of your sweet children will lose his or her life. Maybe that little girl over there with the bandana and the curly hair? Or that charming little dark haired boy with the gang clothes? Wasn't he the one who drew a picture of you in crayon and wrote 'my best friend' on it?"

Duo thumped his head back against the wall several times hard and then he stiffly nodded, once.

"Excellent," Revenant breathed. "You see, Agent Maxwell? Having the right weapon gives a person control. Your government was too foolish to recognize that when I offered them my weapons program. They think peace and compliance can be had with legislation and a meager police force. Once I demonstrate just what my machines are capable of, they'll be happy to step aside for more forward thinking people to take charge."

There was a pause and Duo heard Revenant speaking to someone softly. When he returned his attention to Duo, he was firm and still threatening. "I want you to trust my word. As long as you do what you are told, you will be accorded some respect and privileges. Once you have trained other men adequately to take over your duties, you will be allowed to return to your normal life. Defy or betray my trust in you, and I will have your favorite children shot before I torture you very slowly and very painfully. I must point out, that I have been holding my hand up until now because of your worth to me. Make yourself worthless and you can see where that will lead."

The door opened. Duo expected the two men to take him out of there, but, instead, they strung his chains through bolts in the wall and pulled him spread eagled against it.

"Look at him shake. He's scared," one of the men said almost under his breath and then taunted Duo, "You gonna pee like you did in the hanger?"

Duo felt shame burn through him. He had avoided thinking about that, but he did stink and he knew that the man was telling the truth. It didn't matter that he had been unconscious at the time, he still felt completely humiliated.

"Pansy ass," the other man agreed with a disgusted snort.

They left the room and Duo hung, his body shaking from tortured nerves and stress.

"I'll leave you with your dear ones for a little while,"Revenant told him, "So that you are impressed firmly with the reason for your compliance." He paused and then admitted, "It was, perhaps, fortunate that we were able to capture you instead of Heero Yuy. If you would not break for anything less than children, then I doubt that he ever would have. The man, as far as I can ascertain, has absolutely nothing in his life that I can hold hostage. I thought that one thing might have been you... but, apparently, he doesn't even care for his own partner. A strange man. One wonders what motivates him to live another day."

Silence. Duo hung his head and let his eyes close, his loose hair falling forward around him and giving him at least that bit of privacy. Under that curtain, though, he smiled, fierce and vicious. Revenant didn't have any idea who he was dealing with.

"Yuy," Heero grunted into his phone as he sifted through a mound of work on his desk He was going through the motions, his mind working on strings of code as he tried to design a way to get through the best of Preventer security, a security system that Duo had helped set up. After that trip to the computer store for his new laptop, and the side trip to Duo's apartment, Heero had thought of little else besides solving the mystery of Une so that he could then pursue Duo. He certainly didn't want to be distracted by phone calls.

"Listen close, dumbass," a familiar voice snapped back at him and Heero recognized Jake. "We got a man down here by the projects who was snooping around my gang. He ain't a cop and he ain't from here. He had pics of all of us on him, shit from Mr. M's place. Get down here. Shoops and Dunleavy street, behind McKinny's liquer store. We'll make 'piece of crap' here talk in the meantime."

The phone hung up before Heero could say anything.

"Yuy?" Heero blinked and found Commander Une standing before his desk in her Preventer uniform looking at him coolly.

"Commander," Heero's mind switched over quickly and he made his expression blank.

"Something wrong?" She wondered.

"No Commander," Heero replied.

"I have a report that Maxwell's apartment was ransacked last night," she told him, waving a folder in her hand slightly. "The landlord reported that you had been there earlier, using your Preventer badge to gain access. Why?"

"He will also report that I only removed a cat from the premises," Heero told her calmly, "and that the apartment was in perfect order."

"Cat?" Une lifted an eyebrow. "You knew about the cat and went to rescue it?"

"Yes," Heero replied.

"Why didn't Quatre Winner tend to that matter?" Une wondered and her eyes glinted, but with only mild suspicion. "He is the actual owner of the lease and he was very close to Maxwell before his death. He wouldn't have had to use Preventer authority to gain entrance."

There was reprimand in her tone now. Heero replied, "I didn't know that Quatre had access to the premises. Duo acquired the cat only recently. It's possible that Quatre wasn't aware of it."

She looked him up and down and then she seemed mollified. "In the future, Agent Yuy, you will require a signed order for any searches of civilian property, understood?"

"Yes, Commander," Heero replied.

She tapped the file on her thigh, nodded, and then walked away with a click of heels. Heero counted heartbeats and then bolted for the front door of Headquarters on the count of ten.

see Kracken's original, published yaoi fiction, The Angel Within, at under Kracken Latest updates at:  
and for general fanfiction talk: 


	5. Dragons

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own this and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning: Male/male sex, graphic, language, dark angst, torture, abuse, Attempted NCS

Burning Candles

Dragons

Duo was allowed a shower in a communal shower room and a gray jumpsuit to wear afterward. He was still kept barefoot, though, and they pushed and shoved him when he tried to braid his wet hair. It was a relief to be free of vomit, sweat, and urine, and the hot water helped relax his stressed muscles and nerves, but they didn't give him long to enjoy it. They shackled him again and he was marched, shuffling and stumbling, back to the hanger with his wet hair weighing him down like a wet blanket and his bare feet freezing on the cold floor.

Revenant was there, dressed in black clothing, black jack boots, and black leather gloves. It gave him a sinister appearance as he frowned at Duo and approached him. He snapped his fingers and motioned to a chair behind a console and Duo's guards responded by grabbing Duo and thrusting him into it hard. Duo didn't fight them. He hunched over, his hands fisted in his lap, and remembered another, similar experience during the war.

"Get him a coat and towels for his hair," Revenant growled when he saw Duo shaking. "He can't pilot if he becomes ill!"

Duo continued to sit, unresponsive, when they returned with the items. One man forced a coat on him with brisk motions while another man dried his hair with the towels, purposefully jerking and pulling. When they were done, Duo crossed his arms over his chest and looked at nothing very hard.

Revenant raised a control in one hand and made as if to push a button. Duo flinched and choked on an exclamation, curling inward abruptly, hands going between his legs in a useless move to protect himself. Revenant smiled and said, "Can't help yourself, can you Agent Maxwell? I think we have finally found your pain threshold." He motioned at Duo with the control and Duo flinched again. "Put that headset on."

Duo reached for it with trembling hands, not recognizing the band and the needles connected to it, but seeing that things were about to get painful again. He paused, tried to stop himself from obeying, and began to shake in trepidation so hard it rattled his teeth. Fuck you, he silently told his nerves, fuck you fuck you fuck you!!! He drew in a long breath through gritted teeth and he slowly turned to glare at Revenant.

Revenant tried to interpret that look and then said, "I think it is time for me to explain your new duties." When Duo managed a nod in agreement, he continued, "We have a new weapons system that operates by brain impulses. It takes fine control and a high level of mental ability to make the system work. None of my candidates have managed it as yet." When Duo looked afraid, he hastily added, "It isn't the zero system, if that's your fear. This system doesn't interpret or modify brain impulses. It simply reads them and reacts."

Revenant motioned to a worker and that man operated a control panel. Suddenly, what had seemed a jumble of struts and wires, made a whooshing sound and rose from the ground. It hovered, swiveling optics at a rapid pace at its top and bottom. It looked delicate, like a long legged spider, but Duo recognized the gleam of gundanium and the configuration for lasers at the end of each 'leg'.

"It's harmless, attached to a harness to give it power," Revenant explained. "It will remain there while you train to operate it and then train others to do the same. You will, of course, not be allowed to operate a free motion model at any time."

Revenant toyed with the remote again and Duo dropped the headset and put his hands between his legs, hunching over into a ball and dragging his shackled legs up into the chair. He huddled there. "My medic will install the device," Revenant warned. "If you don't wish another shock, or worse, the death of one of your children, you will hold perfectly still."

An older man in a white jumpsuit came forward with a kit. He spread it out in front of Duo, poured alcohol onto a swab, and began dabbing at places on Duo's head. "I'm going to install several permanent sockets for the needles," he explained, "Their tips are filled with anesthesia. There shouldn't be any pain beyond insertion."

Duo's chains clinked loudly together as he gripped his knees and waited. The medic inserted the sockets at four points on Duo's forehead and then screwed in the needles from the headset. It was painless, but that didn't calm any of Duo's fears about what those needles might do to him. He didn't expect Revenant to come out and admit it if they were dangerous.

"Finished, sir," the medic announced at last, took up his kit, and backed away.

Revenant spent a full minute simply staring at Duo. He smiled then, as if savoring a momentous moment."Proceed, Agent Maxwell. Notice the meter in front of you on the console. There is a green section, a yellow, and a red. You must focus your concentration on the machine so that the needle is in the red. None of my men have been able to pass yellow."

Concentrate, Duo told himself, but all he could think of was the humiliation and pain he had been put through, the agonizing pain of his headache, his constant hunger and thirst, and his failing ability to get his body to overcome it's instinctive need to avoid horrendous pain. Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou! Duo silently shouted again at his traitor body. He stared at the machine. His Gundam training tried to engage, faltered, and then firmly took the mental driver's seat. He had been taught, no matter what the cost or circumstances, to pilot. He had been tested, again and again, under severe conditions and he had learned not to fail. He didn't fail now.

Through trial and error, Duo tried to focus his mind enough to make the meter turn over to red. When it finally did, he turned his eyes to the machine and thought, very hard, basic commands. The machine's legs rose, moved, and extended their lasers. It was only a moment before the meter fell back to yellow, but it was proof enough of Duo's potential. Revenant grinned, a glow in his eyes that was almost demonic. "Excellent!" he exclaimed. "You may stop now."

Duo slumped forward, his cheek coming to rest on the cool console. His senses swam and the world went away for a short time. When he came back to himself, prying his eyes open again, he found Revenant almost in his face. He recoiled and Revenant laughed.

"Well done, Maxwell," Revenant told him and Duo puzzled at the angle he was seeing him at until he realized that he was on his back now and in his cell once more. There was a difference, though. The photos were still there, but a soft mattress was underneath him and the smell of hot food, close at hand, reached Duo's nose.

Duo blinked at Revenant, tried to say something, and then winced when he remembered his tongue.

"Just as I promised," Revenant told him. "Cooperate and you receive rewards. Continue to cooperate, and I will treat you as well as I treat my top officers." He grew very serious then and warned, "If you fail to show marked success, I will punish that as well." He pointed the control at Duo and laughed when Duo made a choked, anguished sound, flinched, and curled up with his hands between his legs. "You can trust that I will not use this unless it is necessary. I would hate for your heart to fail from the shock. However, you've already experienced some of the alternative punishments. They can be much more severe, I assure you."

Revenant straightened and pocketed the control. Joining his guards, he told Duo magnanimously, "You may rest for the remainder of the day. I will send my medic in to treat you and to ease your pain."

He left then, but, before the door closed behind him, Duo saw someone standing in the corridor beyond, waiting for him. Duo rolled to press his ear against the metal floor. The man, as he had hoped, had stopped just outside to speak to that someone. The sound traveled through the metal to his ear, and he heard Revenant's faint voice say, "He's a whipped dog, now. He'll jump when I whistle." Duo's face burned.

The stranger said, "That man took charges beyond what any recorded subject would allow themselves to endure. Keep that in mind and don't underestimate him. He may not want to chance getting his balls shocked, but the reputation of these Gundam pilots tells me he is far from defeated."

"Yes, sir," Revenant replied. "He will stay well guarded at all times."

Duo scowled. He rolled back onto the mattress, but stayed on his side as he began to eat from the tray of food and drink on the floor near at hand. It wasn't necessary for them to believe he was beaten, but it would have made things easier.

"Talk or I'll blow your fucking head off!"

Heero cautiously approached with his hand on his gun. He had been spotted as soon as he had left his car behind on a street corner and three street children, between the ages of ten and thirteen, had ushered him into a back alley. There he saw Jake holding a gun at a kneeling man's head, his expression grim and as cold as any soldier's that Heero had seen on a battlefield. Jake wore a bandana to keep his long hair out of his eyes and, despite the cold, he was wearing only a white tank top, a pair of ragged, low slung cargo pants, and military boots a few sizes too big. The man he was threatening, in dark pants and a dark windbreaker, was middle aged, sported a crewcut, and had a scar across his face. His expression was contemptuous.

"What are you going to do, little street trash?" the man sneered. "Bite my knees? You don't have the guts to pull a trigger."

Jake grunted. "You're right, I don't have the guts," he admitted and the man smirked, "Not where the cops can hear the shot," Jake added and the man glared, suddenly nervous. "I know some underpasses that are just out of the way and noisy enough to cover that up, though." He touched the cold barrel of the gun to the man's ear. "I wonder how many parts of you I need to blow off before you start bawling like a baby? I wonder how many it'll take to kill you?"

His gang laughed. Heero looked around him warily at the motley street kids ranged around their leader like a pack of wolves. Dressed in over sized clothes, gang colors, and sporting piercing, tattoos, and scars, they all had a steel edge to their eyes no matter what their age. It was the same look that Heero had seen in Duo's eyes; the look of children that had seen and experienced too much violence in their short lives. It was obvious the man was completely unaware of his real danger. He was treating them as something they had probably never been; children.

"Jake?" Heero called.

Jake twitched and Heero recognized someone in the 'zone', a soldier focused on a target and on an adrenalin high. ""Bout time you got here," Jake grated. He flipped photos at Heero and they scattered on the ground. He didn't bend to pick them up. He could see what they were. "He came into my territory lookin' to take some of us out. Those are Mr. M's pics. This piece of crap knows where he is."

"Jake," Heero repeated, stronger this time. "Let's talk."

Jake did look at him this time, burning with anger. "That's why you're here, man!" He nodded to an eight year old. "Watch him, Curt." The kid, a small blonde, pulled out a glock from his waistband and held it on the man with a pleased grin. Heero wanted to shudder. Peace hadn't reached these streets, not in the slightest.

Jake strode over to Heero and together they moved to the end of the alley.

"Let him go," Heero told him and Jake's gun, still in his hand rose slightly as he glared at Heero.

"'Splain why that makes any freakin' sense?" Jake demanded.

"He'll go back where he came from and I will have men follow him," Heero told him. "We will find out who he works for and if they have Agent Maxwell."

"That's crap!" Jake swore. "While you're making calls and trying to convince the cops to tail asshole back there, he's going to powder. Besides, he blew his job. His boss'll wanna take him out. Who'd want a shit who gets fucked over by kids? He knows that. He won't go back. He'll go underground." He hefted his gun and glared at Heero. "I'll get out of him where Mr. M is and you go get him... you... he talked about you all the time. He told me you were the best. You're his skin. Don't give me shit that you won't go get him if you know where he's at."

Heero replied, "Why don't you go and get Agent Maxwell, if he means so much to you?"Trying for understanding.

Jake looked pained. "Mr. M.... he's cool. He's one of us. He made things better. I"ve got the gang, though. I have to keep it here for them. I leave and the hawks are gonna come down on 'em."

Heero shivered and his jaw clenched. He replied, "I have a problem like yours. I'm expected-"

Jake snorted. "Like mine? Man, you stupid or somethin'? There's only me, nobody else. You, you got a whole police force backing you up. You tellin' me nobody else can do your job?"

Heero replied quietly,"Not this one."

"Fucking liar!" Jake snarled.

Heero frowned and didn't respond to that. Instead of arguing further, he said, "I can't allow you to hurt that man."

Jake made a strange gesture, a flick of a thumb under his chin, and then he was turning away and Heero was being confronted by armed members of his gang.

"Jake cut you," A dark skinned boy snarled. "Get outta here."

"Not without that man over there," Heero insisted.

"He's outta here too!" Jake snarled back and cut the man lose. "We don't press charges, you can't do 'nothing!"

Heero knew the play and he wasn't going to allow it. "You're not going to force me to track him."

"You know he won't spill a thing," Jake replied. "And now you tipped him off about following him. You must not give a shit about Mr. M."

"I do care!" Heero shouted back and shocked himself, for a moment not understanding that he had said it.

Jake turned, arms out wide, and expression disgusted, "Fuck You! Get outta my neighborhood!" The man started to stand, but Jake pressed his gun to his ear. "Not you, not now. You gotta pay."

The man licked nervous lips, finally understanding his danger.

Heero drew his own gun, ignoring the children around him who did the same. He pointed it at Jake and Jake pointed his gun at Heero. The man was standing between them. He tried to duck out of the way but Jake warned, "Don't fucking move!"

Tension ran between Jake and Heero. They stared at each other, guns unwavering.

"You're gonna die, cop," Jake snarled.

"So are you," Heero snapped back "My job is to keep the peace and follow the law. That man is a suspect. I have to take him in."

"He has to pay for trying to off us," Jake replied harshly.

"Let him go," Heero insisted.

"No," Jake replied.

The man looked from Jake to Heero and saw trigger fingers beginning to squeeze. He suddenly shouted, waving his hands, "Hey... hey! I can... I'll tell you where they have him... just... let me the hell out of here!"

Jake looked down at the man, his eyes wild and dangerous. "Don't lie, you fuck."

The man shrugged. "What's it to me? I can't go back there. They'll kill me. Revenant doesn't like failure."

"Revenant?" Heero grasped at the name.

"He's holed up Fernandino, at an old desert airbase," the man told him. "He makes it look like old prop planes are stored there, but he has a hell of a lot more."

"Drugs? Gun running?" Jake guessed.

The man smirked. "You have no imagination, boy. " He nodded at Heero. "Get me out of here alive and I'll even point it out on a map."

Heero's mind shifted gears. Shifted priorities."Define, "a hell of a lot more'," he demanded.

The man's eyes glinted. "Something to start a nice rebellion, that's what."

Heero was suspicious. "Why turn traitor?"

"Maybe because my own skin is more important," the man replied, "or maybe because I know you can't beat him."

Heero ignored the last and asked pointedly, "What does Commander Une have to do with this?"

The man shrugged. "Revenant needed her pet Gundam pilots. She wouldn't share and she's been trying to take Revenant out ever since she trashed the deal. Her numbers coming up soon, I can tell you that. He won't let her get in his way."

"Why did you send messages to me and not Une if she was your target?" Heero wondered..

"Revenant wanted you in particular," the man sneered. "But he told us to get what we could so we kidnaped that long haired freak, Maxwell, instead. They sent me out to take pics and scope out the kids to threaten him with. They need him to run their systems... well, if he can."

Heero's jaw clenched. He could sense a lie somewhere. He didn't trust the man, didn't trust that he was willing to be that helpful.

The man suddenly whipped out a hidden knife as he began to run, doubting Heero's ability to get him out of there alive. Jake flinched and whirled to shoot, but he was too slow. The man's knife drove right for his eight year old guard standing in his way. The double crack of Heero's gun was loud. The back of the man's head splattered with blood and he fell at the young boy's feet. Heero stood, gun poised, like an executioner.

The young boy spat on the dead man's body and grinned at Heero, un-phased by the violence. "You're a fucking good shot, man!" he exclaimed, "I felt that bullet take off some of my hair!"

Jake frowned and it was clear that he was feeling guilty for not having protected the boy himself. "Dump him," he told his gang, and motioned with his gun at the dumpster nearby. "Then powder. Stay sharp. There's probably more of that shit around here."

His gang went into motion. Jake glared at Heero. "You're going to let Mr. M get bagged too? You going to turn your back and just act like he ain't no kind of shit to worry about?"

"No," Heero replied as he holstered his gun. "I'm going after him."

Jake was confused. "What the fuck? Why now?"

Heero nodded to where his gang was shoving the body into the dumpster. "He gave me the reason to go."

"All that weapons shit he was talking about?" Jake snarled. "Not Mr. M? Right?"

Heero nodded.

"You're a cold fuck, you know that?" Jake said through gritted teeth.

"I've been told that before," Heero replied and walked away, not needing to hear anymore.

He called Quatre on the drive back to his apartment on a secure line. He trusted his old war comrade more than he trusted Preventer agents and Une at that moment. He didn't want the man, Revenant, to know that his project had been compromised. Heero planned to infiltrate the target himself. Apprizing Quatre of that fact, assured that his discovery wouldn't be lost along with him if he were captured or killed.

Heero pulled into his apartment car park and it was, strangely, Jake and his gang that was on his mind rather than mission preparations. He hadn't managed to explain to the hotheaded gang leader about priorities, about duty, or what Duo would have thought if Heero had ignored everything and tried to rescue him. One man, one excellent partner, wasn't worth risking the peace for, wasn't worth ignoring the threat in the Preventers own ranks, or the chance that many people might die in the course of his saving only one man. Duo wouldn't have wanted that. He knew what he had signed up for when he had joined Preventers.

As Heero rode the elevator up to his apartment, his thoughts drifted over the year that he had spent working with Duo. Calm, steady, dependable... those had been Duo's qualities, something he had never expected from the wild Shinigami from the war. They had both grown older, though, changed, mellowed, found their place... only Duo had found more than Preventers, more than the routine. It had seemed like they had worked apart, coming together only to exchange information, when, in fact, over the last days, Heero had come to realize just how integral to Heero's work, and life, Duo had been. When things hadn't been completed, cases stagnated, and contacts dried up, Heero had floundered, trying to reinvent a workday that he had thought that he had been in full control over. There was no one to call now, no one to bring him tea, no one to offer a steady companionship and insights, no one to sit over lunch with, and no one to... Heero stopped there and took a deep breath. How had Duo managed to so thoroughly become a part of his life?

Heero exited the elevator, admitting to himself just how relieved he was to have the excuse, at last, to rescue Duo. It was then that he saw the small package tucked just under his doorway. Heero froze, scanned the hallway, and then approached cautiously, his hand on his gun.

The package was addressed to Commander Une at Preventer Headquarters, Heero saw as he looked down at it. It had been opened and taped shut again. There was a chance that it was a trick, that is was a bomb, ready to go off as soon as he opened the door or picked the package up. That didn't add up though. Everything led Heero to believe that they wanted him alive.

Heero bent, gritted his teeth, and pried the package out from beneath the door. When a blast didn't happen, he let out a breath and then straightened to go into his apartment. Locking the door behind him immediately, he tossed his coat aside, and stood, fingering the package for clues to its origin. The postmark was from New Mexico. The writing was precise and blocky. The package material ordinary. Heero cautiously opened it and pulled out a sheaf of photos and a letter.

Heero found a chair and sat down heavily, heart racing. The pictures of Duo, hanging upside down in a hanger, unconscious and bloody, trembled in his hands. Duo was ringed by men in overalls with their faces covered. They were putting their hands on Duo and one... Heero turned the photos over and put them down in his lap. He closed his eyes for a moment and just tried to breathe. Heero opened his eyes again after long moments of trying to steady himself and unfolded the letter. It was also addressed to Commander Une.

Commander Une,

Witness the result of your poor decisions. Agent Maxwell is to be commended for his loyalty and his strength of character, but, even strong men fail eventually. He will soon be piloting my latest creations and you will not have any defense against them. I suggest that you inform the government of their impending dissolution instead of continuing to cover up this matter. You will not find my installation in time, nor do you have the weapons capability to defeat me. We could have worked well together. I would have given you a high position in my new government. It isn't too late for a change of heart.

Revenant Madegar

There was an email address. Heero tossed the photos aside onto a desk and rushed to boot up his laptop.

"More sugar, please," Duo grunted as he tapped his tea cup.

The guard glared, shifted his rifle, and ignored him.

Hooked up to the device in the hanger and hunched over the console, Duo allowed himself to look as sick as he felt. "It's the only thing keeping me going man, so save yourself some legwork and get me a bunch of packets this time."

The guard gritted his teeth.

"Get the man his sugar, Harris," Revenant said smoothly as he approached.

The guard came to attention and went to obey.

"Thanks," Duo said absently as he turned his attention back to the machine.

"You're making progress," Revenant noted as Duo moved the arms and armed the lasers.

"Not easy with this piece of junk," Duo grated.

"Junk?" Revenant raised an eyebrow.

"The design sucks and the gyros keep seizing up," Duo replied.

"It is the prototype," Revenant assured him and motioned out onto the floor of the hanger. "My army of improved models is already assembled and awaiting orders."

"Lot of good that'll do you," Duo sneered.

Revenant frowned. "Still rebellious, Maxwell? Go on... tell me no, tell me you won't work on my project any longer... in fact... I order you to walk over there and sit down on the floor." He motioned to a point a few feet away. "Care to refuse, Agent Maxwell?"

Revenant pulled out the remote. Duo flinched and found himself removing the headset and walking to the spot, shuffling and chains clinking, before he realized it. He stopped himself, tensed with fists clenched, and then sat down on the floor, hating himself.

"Very good," Revenant chuckled. "I was simply making certain of you. Time is critical. I need to know that you are working diligently towards my goal. You may return to your seat."

Duo stood up again, head bowed, and he took his seat once more. Revenant studied him, nodded, and walked away. The guard returned with a container of sugar packets. Duo recovered and grinned.

"Thanks, man." 


	6. Reboot

Kracken

Disclaimer: I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning: male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, abuse, torture, attempted NCS

Burning Candles

Reboot

Heero spent all night tracking the email and came up empty handed. He was stopped by the need for a password, but, after hacking through that level of security, he found only a deleted account and no trail. Obviously there had been a time limit that had passed for communication.

Frustrated, Heero picked up the photos again. He tried to be dispassionate, tried to block off the emotions caused by seeing Duo abused in such a way. It was hard to be the soldier, hard to make himself look for clues that would confirm the words of a man who had talked under duress.

It was a hanger, Heero surmised, with rusted metal and old style riveting. That supported the man's claim that they were using an abandoned air field. What gave Heero pause though, was the fact that the men were wearing thermal overalls and coats. They looked cold. Also, the use of stainless steel, bracing along the walls, and seals around a doorway gave Heero the impression that this was a place on or near salt water. Not the arid West then.

Heero scanned the photos into his laptop and enhanced them. He shivered at seeing Duo's shock burns magnified, but he was forced to travel up that body to the chains holding him off the floor. He found the clamps halfway up. He was right to assume that the chains had been borrowed from machinery. Those clamps were the same used for mobile dolls and small remote units.

Next, Heero scanned the people standing around Duo. He moved over them minutely. He found himself memorizing the face of the man putting his hand on Duo. He tried to clamp down on his intense anger, the need to punish that man in the harshest manner, but he couldn't. It seethed through him. I will make you pay, he thought, even as he checked the man's clothes for any clue as to who he was.

There. A folded up piece of paper was sticking out of the man's coat pocket. Heero zoomed, enhanced, and ran it through the computer pixel by pixel until he was able to pull the lettering into focus. Harold Chamberman: Duty roster three; level c; hanger. The man's duty sheet.

Looking over the rest of the men didn't give him any other clues until he noticed writing on a paper sitting on a console. It was almost out of shot, just a sliver, a few characters, nothing more. Heero took an hour bringing that small piece into focus. Nort-

Revenant Madagar, Harold Chamberman, Nort. Clues to follow. Heero closed the photos, composed himself, and pushed all thoughts of revenge and saving Duo aside, as he began trying to hack into Une's Preventer database.

"Guess that set you back a bit," Duo sneered and was fully prepared when a booted foot kicked him in the jaw. He saw red and his mouth filled with blood as his face exploded in pain. He bowed over and gasped, half sprawled in chains in his cell.

"You destroyed the engines of every one of my machines," Revenant informed him, murder in his eyes. "Sugar..." He paced. "Sugar in the fuel hoses! A child's trick and my guard fell for it!"

"You did too, don't forget," Duo snickered. He tucked up tight but the toe of Revenant's boot still caught him hard in the ribs.

Revenant grabbed Duo by the braid and brought his face up close to his. He pulled something out of his pocket and dangled it in front of Duo's face. It was a photo of a very young girl grinning wickedly for the camera. Revenant crushed the photo in his hand and dropped it in front of Duo.

"You have signed her death warrant," Revenant told Duo coldly. He took out five more photos of children of varying ages. He crumpled them, one by one, and then let then drop as well. "And these as well. They are dead, Maxwell. Was the price of your little rebellion worth that?"

Duo turned his face away, jaw working.

"My machines will be fixed," Revenant promised. "You will learn to operate them and you will train my men to operate them.

"Liar," Duo sneered and turned his head to glare at Revenant. "I'll bet you my last credit that my little demons took your man out, not the other way around.

A muscle twitched in Revenant's face. "Are you so sure?" he demanded.

Duo didn't reply.

"If you are, then let it comfort you while my men show you what happens to men who stand in my way." Revenant told him and motioned to three men standing at the door. "If dead children don't move you, and being shocked doesn't curb your rebellion, then perhaps I haven't gone far enough. Let's find out just how little of you is needed to pilot, Agent Maxwell."

One of the men pulled out a large clever, grinning, and the other two grabbed Duo's foot. Chained down, Duo could barely move. He shuddered as he watched the blade rise over his ankle.

"Shit!!!" Duo wailed, "Stop! Stop! Okay! Okay! Don't... Don't do that. I..."

Revenant smiled. "I'm listening, Maxwell."

Duo squirmed in his chains, panting, eyes sick and wide. "I... I don't want... I can't live like that."

Revenant smirked. "Ah, now we find out your true weakness; not caring for others, not loss of your pride and honor, and not losing your life. You fear living a cripple the most. " He laughed. "How pathetic!" He nodded to the man with the clever. "Still, I think you need a taste of just how serious a threat this is. James? If you please"

She knew.

Heero sat back in his chair and stared at the satellite photo of a supposedly derelict research platform. It had a hanger for supply ships and research craft and it had lower levels sealed against the sea. It looked deserted. Bird nests were everywhere, seaweed and barnacles covered the lower supports, and weather damage had taken out communication towers and roof panels. A fuel slick was making a greasy track away from it, though, and there were no records showing that any such fuel, or machines using it, had been left behind when the platform had been deserted.

Any agent worth his pay check would have realized that a fuel slick meant activity. Une wasn't stupid. The photo had been in her records along with reports from various agents, reports that were meaningless unless an agent was aware of the platform. There was also a sub file on Duo Maxwell and his extensive capabilities as an agent. Was Une hoping that Duo could manage his own escape? Was she waiting for some sign of that, keeping watch by the satellite network? It didn't make sense. If illegal activity was going on, she should have been moving in at once with troops.

Heero had already hacked into her personal email and found nothing. He was sure she wouldn't risk something that open if she were running a covert action. He had mainly hacked into it to get a feel for her personality, for words she might use as passwords into deeper files. She was canny, though, or Duo, who had set up the system, was. There were trip alarms and false data in every layer. Security like that, for any operation, was unusual. Une didn't want anyone knowing about the platform, Madagar, or Duo's whereabouts. That made Heero think of blackmail or the possibility that Une had her own agenda. The thought of the head of the Preventers, working against Peace, chilled him to the bone.

Heero packed his laptop and gathered a duffle of clothing and weapons. He needed to recon the platform. He could continue to hack into Une's system on the way. Opening his front door, he came face to face with Jake. Startled, Heero almost drew his gun, knowing just how dangerous the boy could be.

"Two of my boys are in the hospital," Jake said, his eyes shadowed under his head band. "I left the rest with the goody goodies at the kid's home. They'll be fine. They'll cheat those morons out of their money, steal what they can, eat all their food, and be alive when I get back."

Heero looked the boy up and down. Jake had changed into plain jeans, a black leather coat, and he had pulled his unruly hair back into a pony tail. The way he stood and the set of his jaw, reminded Heero sharply of Duo. "That's your own business," Heero told him as he moved past into the hallway.

Jake was smart enough not to grab onto Heero, but he did follow. "I've had two years training with Mr. M."

Heero stopped and looked at the boy sharply. "Training?"

Jake jammed his hands into his pockets and glared. "I want to be a Preventer, okay?"

"What sort of training?" Heero asked. If Duo had taught this boy his Gundam Pilot training... Heero's trigger finger itched at the prospect. Training like that didn't have a place in their world any longer. Super men who helped keep the peace was one thing, a super man taking advantage of that training on the streets was another.

"Preventer basics all the way to third level," Jake told him with some pride. "Mr. M told me I'm a hot shot son of a bitch, but I have talent."

"Third level?" Heero was impressed. Some five year veterans never made it to third level. The boy did have talent.

Heero made a sudden move, whipping out his heavy bladed knife and stabbing towards Jake's gut. Jake blocked, twisted, and brought his own knife towards Heero's throat with a snarl of fury. Heero blocked it, grabbed Jake's arm, and bent it. The boy groaned, but his nerveless fingers dropped his knife. He wasn't out, yet, though. He let his weight drop like a stone, pulling Heero down with him. His back hit the floor, he rolled his body up, and then kicked out into Heero's gut. Heero's momentum brought him into the kick full force. He had tensed his abdomen to take it, though, and he only grunted as he pulled away and glared at Jake.

"Duo was right," Heero said as he rubbed at his bruised gut. "You do have talent."

Heero turned, retrieved his dropped luggage, and began walking again.

"Hey!" Jake shouted and caught up with him. "I proved I can handle myself! I'm going where you're going."

Heero gave him an intense, sideways glare. "I could have killed you eleven times during our fight. Stay home, protect your gang, Jake. That's what Maxwell would want."

Jake didn't follow him, but a string of profanities did.

Give them something, Duo thought, but not too much. Duo let the tears run down his face and he shuddered and whimpered as he kept touching his mangled foot. "You bastards! Bastards! I'll kill you for this! God, how could you?! Shit! It hurts! I'm a freakin' cripple! Fuck you! Fuck everyone of you bastards!"

Revenant wasn't looking. Standing in a splatter of Duo's blood, he said in a voice that was slightly unsteady, "Now do you see how serious I am, Maxwell? I've killed your children, I've taken away your dignity, and now I've taken away a piece of you. It can get worse, Maxwell. What else can't you bear? I can find out all too easily."

"I..." Duo sobbed and then bit down on his hand to stop himself. On his back, panting, staring in a red haze of pain at the ceiling, he counted to ten and then said in anguish, "All right! No more fucking tricks! No more! I... I'll do what you say. I... can you put them back on, please? Please?"

Revenant narrowed eyes in disgust. He nodded to a doctor standing by. "Micro sew his toes back on... this time. When you're done, pump him full of a local anesthetic and put him back to work."

"Anesthetic, before or after I sew them back on?" the doctor asked without expression.

Revenant thought for a moment and then replied, "After. Let him feel it for a time."

Duo braced himself as the doctor knelt and opened up a case of instruments. The pain was searing, incredible. It almost took him under with every one of his heartbeats, but he held on, turned his head to try and watch Revenant leave.

The strange man was there again, waiting for his report. Half hidden by the door, Duo saw the barest impression of a face. He strained to listen.

"He's afraid of losing body parts, it seems," Revenant told the man.

"You are a fool," the man growled and Duo tried to memorize his voice. "This is another game of his. Gundam Pilots don't surrender. Put him on the console. Put a gun to his head. If he makes one move away from his work station, paint the walls with his brains. If I have to use Mobile Doll intelligence chips, I will. Time is running out."

"They can't operate the systems properly," Revenant warned. "In all of our tests, they failed independent, battle field, problem solving. They can only operate from downloaded battle tactics."

"Trieze conquered Earth and space once, we can do it again with his machines, if we have to," The voice retorted.

But they weren't Trieze's, Duo thought. The man hated Mobile Doll intelligence chips.

The man left and Revenant didn't return. Revenant was squeamish, Duo thought, something else to file away in memory. When a needle sank into his damaged foot, he looked down his body, startled, at the doctor kneeled there in his blood. The man was blocking the sight of the needle from the guards with his body. His eyes narrowed sharply and Duo understood. Grateful for some compassion from his enemy, he let out an impressive scream as the doctor began to sew the toes back onto his numbed left foot.

It wasn't the first time that Duo had gone through micro surgery, or the first time that he had sat through, awake, having a part of himself reattached. You didn't go through a war without wounds. Still, five toes, however small, were attached to bones and joints. The doctor had to repair it all, a phenomenal knitting job with a laser for a needle and bio fibers for thread..They wouldn't be as good as new, but they would be on the end of his foot again. It was all for the cause though and Duo knew, as he allowed himself to go unconscious, that he would very likely get his revenge on them in the end... well, except for the doctor. He would try to make sure he, at least, lived through what was coming.

"Secure line?" Heero asked.

"Of course," Quatre replied, his image on Heero's laptop eating a fig as he leaned back and looked at something to one side of him. "Your jet is still doing fine. Radar hasn't picked you up at any point and I haven't heard any chatter wondering who your are."

"No communications to Une's office," Heero told him."I informed Headquarters that Duo's death was affecting me adversely and that I needed several days off to come to terms with it. When they call my apartment, they will get a message stating that I have taken a trip to South America to visit Trowa Barton. I made a reservation at the airport and at a local hotel in Argentina."

"Trowa is almost at the sight," Quatre informed him, eating another date, taking a sip of chilled juice, and leaning forward to punch up something on his computer. "He's going by Mateo Escavera. He will meet you at the reserved terminal and the rest is up to you two." He leaned in close to the vid screen. "You will make sure my lover comes back alive, Yuy."

"Roger that," Heero grunted and cut the connection. He leaned back into his leather seat and looked out the window at the blue sky and clouds all around Quatre's personal jet. Three hours in the air. Three hours to get as much information as possible, and to plan an assault on a platform, in a sea, with a view from every angle. Recon, he amended, not assault. He wouldn't go in until he was sure what he was dealing with and who was one which side of the conflict.

Pictures of children were pasted to his console with bull's eyes drawn on them in red. Duo frowned. Why was Revenant trying that again? Maybe he was trying to pinpoint Duo's favorite, trying to find the one Duo cared about the most?. The problem was, he cared about all of them, deeply. His heart was a lump of ache and frantic worry. He knew his kids. Some of them had come through the tail end of the war; orphans, street mean, used to people trying to kill them from every point imaginable. If the war had still been going on, he could imagine them hiring themselves out as scouts, mercenaries, snipers, and spies. He had been working on taming them, bringing them into society, teaching them that there were better things to be than street trash. His successes had been many. Jake... he thought fondly of the eldest of his kids. That boy would make a fine Preventer. He had taken the longest to convince, the longest to trust. Jake would be keeping the others safe, Duo knew, and he was almost certain that the idiots Revenant had as soldiers of his new government were no match for a child that had grown up on broken glass and switchblades.

Duo wiped sweat from his forehead. The anesthetic was working on his foot, but he couldn't convince his body that it hadn't just experienced a traumatic shock only hours before. He couldn't let it make him weak though. He had to stay in control. He had to keep leading Revenant down the path of his choosing despite what the man ended up doing to him.

"Go ahead," a guard sneered, scratching Duo's temple with the barrel of his gun. "Go on and take a walk, try to mess up more fuel lines, try to get away, try to go take a pee even. I think red would look pretty good on these walls."

"Watching me has gotta be better than bending over a barrel for your 'comrades'," Duo replied, "Or do you want me dead 'cuz you miss it?"

The man nudged at Duo's head hard. "Keep it up, pretty boy. Maybe that'll be Madagar's next punishment when you screw up; us screwing you?"

"I can tell you're eager for that," Duo sneered. "You been eyeballing my pretty ass?"

The man leaned close to Duo and whispered in his ear, "It's all the same when you're giving it to a pretty ass."

Duo looked sideways at him, frowned, and then ran his fingers over a side console. "Did you realize this has a recorder in it? Seems Revenant wants a periodic update of my progress. Guess we'll see what he thinks about your 'party' ideas."

The man straightened sharply, went pale, and swallowed hard, just as two more guards came up on either side of him.

"Revenant wants to see you, Sanders," One of them men announced in a cold voice.

Sanders glared at Duo. "He's going to kill you in the end, piece of shit! I hope he cuts you up into little bits, slowly, and makes you watch while the bits are fed to the birds!"

"Nice," Duo replied with a feral grin, "Maybe you should try out for Revenant's executioner? Oh, wait, I'm sorry, you'll be dead, won't you?"

The man was taken away struggling. Duo wiped a hand over his sweating face, glared at the machine in front of him, and mumbled, "Now that distractions are freakin' over with. Let's get busy, you piece of crap." 


	7. Cloak and Dagger

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, torture, abuse, attempted NCS

Burning Candles

Cloak and Dagger

Heero met Trowa just outside of a small airstrip. The man was leaning against a jeep that was almost bare bones metal, and he was wearing a wide brimmed hat, a pair of ragged jeans's, and a shirt that had a beer slogan printed on it. Trowa was even taller than Heero remembered. He topped Heero by five inches, but he had the slouch that tall people often developed to put themselves on a level with the shorter world around them.

"Mr. Onigowa," Trowa greeted.

"Mr. Escavera," Heero replied as he tossed his bag into the back of the jeep and climbed into the passenger side.

Trowa smiled and hopped into the driver's side seat. The engine roared and he took off at breakneck speed, not down the main road out of the airport, but onto a side dirt road into the jungle.

"I've secured a small fishing boat," Trowa told him over the sound of the laboring engine and the rushing wind. "We won't need a crew and it's not unusual for that type of vessel to be out that far. If we're questioned, the vessel is old enough to have engine trouble. We can claim to be adrift. They won't risk killing us and having our boat reported as missing. That would cause a search of the area."

Heero nodded as he pulled out a map and checked tides and currents. He didn't bother taking off his coat, despite the tropical heat. When Trowa spun the jeep half way around and drove straight into a roadless jungle, Heero wasn't surprised. The squat, black shape of a ship crouched under palm fronds up ahead and Trowa stopped the jeep a few feet from it and killed the engine. He jumped out without hesitation and Heero was only a few steps behind him as he paused to grab his bag.

They boarded the ship, Trowa tossing his hat aside and Heero stowing his bag behind his seat. There was barely enough room for two in the cramped cockpit. The ship itself was only a collection of struts and support webbing around an engine and a large fuel tank. It was a military jump ship, made for short hops to the upper orbital space stations, but severely modified to foil radar and satellite surveillance. If anyone had followed Heero's trail to South America, they were about to lose it now.

Heero was at the controls this time. He took off straight up, foliage flying as the thrusters shot them away from Earth. He felt the pressure of gravity trying to make him one with his seat. A space suit was required for that fast of a jump, but those rules had been made for ordinary pilots. While Trowa checked oxygen levels and seal reports and called out greens, Heero took them through the atmosphere like a shooting star, arced the ship into orbit in a graceful rollover, and then rode their own momentum as he cut the engines.

"Sweet," Trowa murmured with a quiet smile as gravity dropped away and left them floating in free fall. "You haven't lost your touch."

Heero glared. "Why would I?"

"Desk jobs do that to a man," Trowa replied with a shrug.

"Desk job?" Heero's glare deepened. "I'm a Preventer field agent."

Trowa looked at him then as he readjusted a filter unit. Those green eyes were curious and they seemed to have the power to make Heero re-evaluate his entire career with the Preventers in only a few heartbeats. Easy missions any agent could have accomplished, paper work, leg work, crime scene investigations, and a few close calls... nothing memorable.

Heero ground his teeth together. He wasn't sure what to say to this sudden peeling open of his life. Finally, he managed, "Duo was my partner." It was attempt to legitimize himself again, reaffirm that he hadn't chosen to do anything unusual.

"Was he?" Trowa wondered.

"What are you trying to-" Heero stopped. Trowa was trying to tell him something."What do you know?" he demanded.

Trowa turned his attention back to his instruments. "When Quatre asked me to accompany you, I evaluated the situation."

"And?" Heero snapped.

"Une knows," Trowa told him calmly as he flicked switches and checked the debris warning system. "You know her as well as I do. She is not a soldier who sits back and waits for developments. She is a phenomenal tactician."

Heero didn't want to hear anymore. He didn't want to hear that Trowa thought that Duo was working with Une, that he had known all along about Madagar and, perhaps, had allowed himself to be kidnaped. It would explain Une's insistence on the incident being top secret, on declaring Duo dead, on keeping Heero as far away as possible from the case.

Trowa didn't elaborate. The man knew that Heero had put it together himself. He could see that by the way Heero went pale and tense and by the way his hands went white knuckled on the controls.

"We may be walking into Une's operation, then," Heero choked out. He cleared his voice, tried again. "Duo and I... we didn't work closely together, he was often out on assignment. I thought..."

"Thought you were working on the same cases?" Trowa finished.

Heero remembered the unexplained bruises and wounds on Duo, the weariness he'd often seen in his partner. "He was working with street kids, after hours."

"He told you that?" Trowa wondered. "According to my research, he volunteered very minimally at a home for troubled children."

All of the pictures, though, all of the sports, the gatherings, the play... Heero shook his head sharply. "You're making guesses."

"Based on facts," Trowa replied. "Don't go into a mission blind, Heero. Know all of the possibilities, or the one you try to ignore, will get you dead."

Trowa's words burned all the way down into Heero's heart as he pushed the ship back into the atmosphere and began re-entry.

Duo sat, huddled in his cell, while two of his guards tossed the controller back and forth, laughing at his flinches. A wrong move, a fumbled catch, and the button could get accidentally pressed. They were taking what revenge they could for the death of their comrades.

"This cell is monitored!" Duo choked out.

One of the guards grinned. "We have a friend in control who's having a cup of coffee right now and watching the show."

The control slipped through fingers and tumbled end over end towards the floor.

"Shit!" Duo cried and his chains rattled as he tried to reach it.

The guard caught the control deftly and waggled it at Duo, his eyes glittering with glee as Duo shuddered and bit back a whimper.

"If that goes off," Duo seethed, "Revenant will kill you both!"

"Maybe...," the man flipped the control over in his hand and caught it with a smack against his palm. Duo couldn't help putting his hands between his legs and curling tight. "Maybe not," the man continued. "Are you willing to bet we're not mad enough to take that chance?"

"Yeah," Duo spat, "I am!"

"Well," the man said with relish as he pointed the control at Duo. "You bet wrong."

Duo saw the button depressed. His body jerked and he bit his tongue as every muscle in his body went into a spasm of anticipation. He threw up his lunch, heaving as he clenched tightly around his groin. It was a long moment before he realized that there wasn't any pain.

The men were laughing at him. Duo pulled himself up, forcing his body to uncurl enough so that he could at least pretend to be able to defend himself. One of the guards showed him that the controller was minus it's power source.

"That was too easy," the other one laughed. "Come on, fun times over."

"Next time, I might not take out the power source, piece of shit," the first guard warned. He fished a picture out of his pocket. "I almost forgot. Revenant says you're taking too long. You lost another one of your babies because of that."

The guard flipped the picture at Duo and it landed by Duo's knee. He looked down, as he swallowed the blood from his bitten tongue, and saw a little boy with large brown eyes smirking at the camera and flipping a bird.

"The guy who did it said he was real sweet, right before he gutted him," the guard laughed. "Street trash anyway. Like exterminating rats."

They left him and Duo scowled and moved away from the vomit as far as his chains would allow. He left the photo behind. Rick was one of Jake's. If that boy was dead, then so was Jake. That's the only way anyone would have gotten to him.

Duo couldn't let himself think about it. He couldn't consider what he was paying in blood and humiliation to come out on top. He had to win. He had to beat Revenant. He had to...

Duo ached. His body throbbed with pain and weariness. What he wouldn't give to see Heero's sullen face. He needed that man so badly, needed his steady, constant presence, needed to hear him analyze and solve a situation as if he had the world under his control. The year he had spent being Heero's partner had been the anchor that he had needed to keep from falling to pieces after the war. It was Heero who had taught him discipline, patience, and routine. He needed all of those things now, needed to keep his head and patiently steer his enemies in the direction that he needed them to go. The hot dogging, fly by the seat of his pants, Duo from the war wouldn't have survived this long.

What was Heero doing now? Was he missing him at all? Duo's body shuddered and he spat aside, trying to get the foul taste out of his mouth. His eyes watered and he wiped at them. Somehow, Duo couldn't see Heero breaking out of his routine. He even imagined Heero waiting patiently for Duo to bring him his tea, and probably doing without when he didn't show up. They had become two halves of a solid team and they had each had a set role to play in their daily dance. Heero would carry on, he was sure, but he could only imagine him operating like a man suddenly losing an arm.

Duo swore at himself. He was crediting himself too much in what they had been to each other, acting as if he were irreplaceable when the reality was probably that Heero had just deleted his file from memory and acted as if he had never existed. The man had always been a solo act until Duo had shown up.

Duo's eyes were drawn back to the photo. Working with the kids had been an unexpected development in his life. Jake had tried to rob him one night and Duo had beaten him and followed him back to his gang. It was then that he had realized that there were some parts of Earth and space that peace time would never reach and that he was needed there as much as he was needed by Heero's side. Duo frowned. He was doing it again, acting as if Heero couldn't do without him, acting as if the man needed him. If only he had told Heero about the kids, Heero might have found a way to protect them. He tried to imagine Heero caring about street kids. The image came easier than he thought it would. Heero had always been a protector, even during the war.

"I should have trusted you, " Duo muttered to himself as he curled up and tried to sleep.

Heero was forced to land the jump plane onto the heaving deck of a fishing boat in rough seas. Heero compensated for the roll and pitch with nerves of gundanium and didn't even twitch when a sea bird shot through the exhaust and made the plane vibrate and jerk. When they were on the deck, they scrambled out of the cockpit, hauled lines, and opened the cavernous hold. A crane picked the light plane up and lowered it inside.

Heero cast anchor and climbed into the wheel house while Trowa went below deck to secure the plane. GPS told him their position and their destination point. Heero calculated in his head and then revved the engine and took them out.

The console vid screen flashed and Quatre's voice asked, "Secure line?"

Heero checked and confirmed. "Yes. Go ahead."

Quatre's face appeared. He squinted at the old wheel house and then at Heero. "My Trowa in one piece?"

"Securing the plane," Heero assured him.

"You're right on time," Quatre observed. "Anal as ever, Heero."

Heero found a smile. His adrenalin was pumping and he felt exhilarated, like a Gundam taken out of moth balls and put into battle once more.

"My Maguanacs found some interesting data that you might be interested in," Quatre told him. "Some high level secure communications have been going between Une and a ship not far from your location."

Heero lost his smile, remembering Trowa's accusations.

"The ship is called the Celestial Covenant," Quatre continued and then he narrowed eyes at Heero. "It's registered out of Nova Scotia."

Heero considered that information. "Do their communications have a pattern?"

"Twice a day," Quatre replied as he leaned forward to retrieve something. He sat back and looked over a slip of paper. "4:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. Sophisticated scramblers, too. My men haven't been able to crack the code yet. It's covered with fishing haul reports and it's tagged as if it's going to a fish house on the coast. We would have missed it if Rashid hadn't noticed a ping at the end of every transmission. They used to piggyback messages like that and bounce them off of satellites during the war." He eyed the screen, very serious. "I suggest that you hack into these messages before you move in. If Une is running her own operation, you could compromise that."

Heero glared. "I'm aware of that."

Quatre chuckled. "Just confirming, Heero."

Trowa's face appeared on a small part of the screen. "My turn, Heero. Log off so I can talk to Quatre down here."

Heero looked disapproving.

"Don't worry," Trowa assured him. "I'll keep it short."

Heero logged off in annoyance, but he was thinking about Duo now and how very much he wished that he could hear his voice and see his face.

Heero dropped anchor a mile from their target ship and deployed the nets. The computerized system paid out the lines automatically. Any casual surveillance wouldn't pick up anything unusual. He calculated that they had four hours before they would be forced to move back towards shore to keep their cover.

The laptop beeped and Trowa appeared. "Hacking the Celestial Covenant," he told Heero. "You ready to assist?"

Heero nodded, set the proximity and scan alarms, and joined Trowa in cyberspace, picking apart the security protocols of their target's computer system through their uplink. Heero recognized the signature of the system right away. So did Trowa.

"Duo," Trowa muttered. "Is there a system that man DIDN'T create?"

For the Preventers, Trowa meant and Heero understood. A ship out of Nova Scotia was carrying security systems devised by Duo and communicating with Une. Heero couldn't deny it any longer. Duo was working for Une and this wasn't a kidnaping. It was a Preventer operation.

TBC

see Kracken's original, published yaoi fiction, The Angel Within, at under Kracken Latest updates at:  
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	8. Cluster Bombs

Kracken

Disclaimer: I don't own this and don't make any money off of it.  
Warning: Male/male sex, graphic, language, attempted NCS, violence, abuse, torture scenes.

Burning Candles

Cluster Bombs

"Good. Adequate," Revenant said with fierce pleasure as he walked around the moving machine. He stopped and looked at Duo, who was slumped on the controls. "You will now teach my men to do this. You have one week."

Duo shivered in his coat and hunched in on himself. "I want a shower first, a hot one, and I don't want the freaks you call guards to-"

Revenant strode to the console and looked down at him. He said icily, "I am well aware of EVERYTHING that happens in this complex, Agent Maxwell. I chose to let my men have their revenge. Sometimes, order is maintained by allowing certain privileges. You caused the injury and death of too many men. The resentment has grown too high. I can't be seen favoring you at this time. Once you have trained my men, and we have won decisively, I will be able to relax security and afford you comforts."

If a grave was comfort, Duo thought, knowing what was going to happen when his usefulness was done. That didn't matter, though. He was more concerned with surviving long enough to accomplish his goals.

"I can't concentrate with my foot aching and my body freezing and stinking like a sewer," Duo grumbled.

Revenant narrowed eyes at him. "What are you made of, Maxwell?"

"Snails and puppy dog tails," Duo quipped and leaned forward to rest his forehead on his arms.

"You know that only pain will result from your continued baiting, but you do it anyhow." Revenant wrinkled his nose and moved away. "Perhaps it is the only way that you can feel that you are fighting back? In control?"

Duo didn't raise his head. "Yeah, whatever..."

Revenant glared. "People who fight back, generally think there is hope of winning."

Duo didn't stay still, that would have given him away. He rolled his head instead and peered at his tormentor with a bloodshot eye. "I have a friend who once told me, that if his lions ever tried to eat him, he'd make himself taste as bad as possible. That's kind of how I feel too."

"The lion still gets his meal, no matter how bad it tastes," Revenant scoffed.

"So, you're gonna eat me?" Duo snickered.

Revenant's hands turned into fists and then he relaxed them. "I think you do need a bath, Maxwell, so that my men can get close enough to learn from you. "

Revenant stalked away and talked to one of his men. The man laughed and Duo didn't think that could be good for him. When four men came towards him, and took hold of his trailing leg chains, Duo was ready to roll with the fall as they dragged him out of his chair and towards an open bay door.

For the first time, Duo was able to see where he was; a platform out in the middle of a raging sea. The chill took his breath away as a stiff wind slapped into him. The men held him tightly, but Duo knew fighting wasn't possible. He reminded himself that Revenant needed him alive, as his laughing guards climbed down to a lower level, their booted feet clanging on the metal steps. It wasn't hard to guess what was about to happen.

They hung Duo by his leg chains and lowered him over a rail. The waves rolled over him, freezing salt water that almost made his heart stop. In between waves, he gasped for breath and swung dangerously close to one of the huge metal platform supports. A network of iron bars supported work stations were researchers could lower equipment, make repairs, or stage dives. After the third wave, Duo became aware that someone was standing on one of them.

Duo twisted, wanting his enemy in sight, but it was almost impossible to focus with his eyes stinging with salt and his body going into shock from the cold water. Another wave hit and he almost gave up, but his chains were tightened suddenly and he felt himself being pulled back up. It steadied him long enough to see the figure clearly. It was Heero, braced against a strut, wide eyed, mouth open slightly. He was wearing a wetsuit and micro tanks. Painting the target, Duo thought, or placing listening devices in the lower communications array.

Duo felt a shock that was greater than the water. Heero, here? He couldn't get his head around it, and then an all encompassing realization shook him to the core. Revenant would be watching the show. Revenant would see him. Duo couldn't even warn Heero. If he shouted, he would definitely give him away. He could only shake his head desperately at Heero before he was clear of the rail and being hauled back up to the hanger.

Soaking wet, Duo was shivering violently and stumbling. They shoved him back and forth between them, yanking off his clothes and drying him off with towels. His braid was a dragging, sodden, rope and his still healing foot was on fire. When he was finally allowed to stand still, he fell to his knees. Revenant bent and looked in his shivering face.

"As I said, Agent Maxwell, you may make yourself taste bad, but the lion will still feast."

They didn't bother dressing him and walked him back to his cell naked. They chained him to the wall, but loosely enough so that he could huddle on his thin mattress, shivering still. They didn't trust him with blankets When they left him alone, Duo's only option was to pull the mattress over himself and shiver underneath it.

After a half hour, when Duo was finally losing the chill, the door opened again and someone else was brought in. They had him chained with his hands behind his back and a neck collar attached to that. Leg irons made him shuffle. Shoving him down, the guards chained him to the wall and made sure that he had only enough slack to sit.

Heero Yuy glared at the men. They had stripped him, searched him presumably, and put him in a gray jumpsuit. Abrasions and bruises littered what skin was visible and a slowly spreading red spot from his shoulder to his elbow announced the presence of some wound there. His hair was wet and in his face.

"Duo," Heero said tensely after the guards had gone.

"Heero," Duo returned sourly, throttling his real emotional surge of relief and joy to see his partner again with the reality of what it entailed for them both. He decided on smart assed angry "So... nice to see you and all, but what kind of lame rescue was this?"

"It wasn't," Heero growled back. "I was setting monitoring devices."

"Oh." Duo stared and then asked. "Hurt?"

Heero's face tightened.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Duo said, hoping that Heero would understand, from his obvious question, that he needed him to talk. "I can see you are. Did Mr. Sadistic at least tape you up?"

Heero nodded. He studied Duo. "Status?"

"The usual from getting the shit beat out of me," Duo returned. "I've got a foot injury, too, and some shock burns. These manacles and chains have been messing with my skin and joints; rub wounds and stressed muscles." As he talked, his concentration was elsewhere. His hands under the mattress pulled out the tool he had managed to palm while they had been busy dragging him through the work area. It had a very sharp edge. The trick was to stay completely impassive while he did minor surgery. Heero's presence, and the fact that his captors expected him to try to warm up, had given him the perfect opportunity, the perfect distraction.

Duo felt with his fingers, found the still stitched wound, and then opened it up. He shuddered violently. Hopefully, they would think he was still affected by the cold.

"Monitored?" Heero asked.

Duo focused on him. It was very hard. There were tears in his eyes. His partner, the man he had spent a year with, the man who he thought would have gone on without missing him, was sitting near him and sharing his ordeal. Asking how that had happened was a burning desire for Duo, but, he couldn't, not with Revenant listening.

"Yes," Duo replied."That's why they saw you. They have everything hooked up to scanners."

Duo squeezed the salt water out of his braid into the wound. He shuddered again and bit down viciously on his lip. Heero noticed it. Heero, wisely, said nothing. Duo curled tightly, trying to control every fiber of his being as he continued to squeeze salt water. When the device shorted, he convulsed into a fetal position, his teeth going deep into flesh and drawing blood.

Heero said, "I followed your trail and deduced, through emails from someone called Madagar, that you were at this location. I attempted to monitor, with the purpose of extracting you once I deemed it possible. I'm working solo. Une wouldn't authorize the operation." He tested his chains and they rattled. He strained muscles, making a show of it. "Une has signed your death certificate. She refused to allow me to investigate your disappearance or your murder."

Say something, Duo thought to himself harshly. Take your teeth out of your bleeding lip, ignore the muscle spasms, ignore the searing pain between your legs, and ignore the desire to pass out and escape it. Say... something.... "I'm not dead."

That had been a choked whisper. He checked his wound and felt the violent sting of cauterized flesh..Once again, he viciously clamped down on nausea and the need to pass out. It felt good to lie down, though, and he didn't think that would be suspicious.

"I... I never thought that you were," Heero admitted and Duo squinted at him, trying to focus. He gritted a smile.

"Heero," Duo managed. "I want to catch up and all that, but... Big Daddy is listening and watching and he can go fuck himself. Guess we're going to be roomies. I don't think you're going to like the landlord, though."

"I think you're almost in shock," Heero replied and it was giving Duo an excuse he desperately needed. "Try to sleep. We can talk later."

"Good idea." Duo tucked the bloody tool into his braid and then pushed the mattress down to wipe up any blood that had pooled. If he kept it flat, there was a good chance no one would see the stains. He already had a story ready if they did. He kept from grinning to himself in triumph as he finally allowed himself to pass out.

Heero timed the pulse beat that he could see in Duo's neck. Ragged, he decided, but not life threatening. He kept his face impassive, as flat as the surface of a frozen lake, as he tried to understand what was going on.

Pictures were stuck to the walls. Pictures of Duo's troubled children. The bulls eye's on some of them made it clear what the threat was, how they had tried to control Duo. From the look of Duo's condition, though, it was equally obvious that the threat hadn't been very successful. The cot was surrounded by smears and dried pools of blood. Heero could see at least one source of that blood, Duo's foot. Something inside of Heero clenched hard in pain. Microsurgery was a marvel, but it couldn't stop the hideous bruising and pooling of blood under the skin, showing that the trauma had occurred, nor was it perfect when a less than competent doctor used it to re-attach body parts.

Something had happened during his arrival in that cell. Duo had wanted him to talk, to keep attention away from what he was doing under that cot. Whatever he had been doing, Heero had seen signs of how much pain it had caused him. Duo wasn't going to be mobile, at least not enough for an escape attempt, Heero decided. His job now, was to wait for rescue, to trust in Trowa to finish what he had started, and to protect Duo from discovery.

Heero bowed his head, straining against the chains and manacles. It was a clever arrangement. If he pulled enough to free himself, he would snap his own neck. Someone was well aware of his strength. When the time came, escape wouldn't be easy.

Duo made a small whimpering sound. It cut at Heero so sharply that it stunned him. His head came up and he slipped out of 'mission mode' with an overwhelming desire to reach Duo, to find out exactly what was wrong with him. The pale face, the bruised eyes, and the sodden braid trailing the metal floor, made him look vulnerable. It reminded Heero of the war, when he had helped Duo escape an Oz prison. Duo had been unconscious towards the end and he had looked just like that. Back then, Heero had pretended not to care, but he had taken Duo to a rebel hospital and had stayed with him until he had recovered. It was having the same effect now, stirring emotions that Heero had not understood then, but understood much better now as a grown man.

Keep it in the box, Heero told himself. If their enemy knew that.... He had to be honest now. He couldn't ignore this sudden realization, the feelings that could so easily be used against both him and Duo. He had not come all that way, to a platform in the middle of a raging sea, to rescue a partner. Had Trowa realized that? Quatre? Is this why Une had not allowed him to participate in Duo's search and rescue?

Duo shivered and gasped. His hands clenched in the mattress. "Heero," he whispered and Heero was certain he was still unconscious. The tone of choked anguish was clear. It made Heero think of every moment that they had spent together, trying to capture some hint that Duo...

Heero jerked at a chain with a clatter and clink until the manacle dug into his skin. Stop thinking about that, he told himself. It was useless and it was a danger. He had stepped into a situation that he didn't understand. He had planned on monitoring the platform, infiltrating the ship nearby, and tapping into communications. He had planned not to interrupt if a mission was ongoing. Now that he had been thrown headfirst into the situation, it was possible that he had completely compromised Duo, that he had done the exact thing that Une might have been afraid of.

They gave him time to let his position sink in, to see the mess they had made of Duo, and to contemplate the same fate happening to himself. A few hours. Enough time for Duo to wake up again.

"Better," Duo said simply as he levered himself up into a sitting position. He blinked as if he hadn't slept at all and he looked tense and in pain. "Damn headache again. Almost wished they had sawed off my head instead of my toes."

It was hard for Heero to keep the flinch off his face, to not let the nausea in his stomach change his expression. Duo peered at him and Heero saw a dozen things that he tried to convey with just a tightness of mouth and a glint in his eyes. It was a warning, Heero was certain, and the small hand sign as Duo lifted it to rake his tangled bangs out of his eyes, said simply, 'point'. Meaning Duo would call the shots. It was then that Heero saw the gash under Duo's wrist manacle and the dark blood running on his arm. Duo saw it at the same time and swore.

"Must have happened when they dragged me," Duo snarled. "Fucking gorillas! Freakin blood's everywhere!"

The door opened before Heero could respond and Revenant and his men entered. He motioned three men to approach Duo and they tossed the mattress off of him. Duo huddled, arms and legs drawn inward, red with blood below the waist. They ignored that and pinned down his good foot.

"Shit No!" Duo exclaimed with wide eyes.

"I'm afraid so," Revenant replied cooly. "I don't need any more disruptions. You will begin training my men, but first I wish to make certain that Heero Yuy realizes the consequences if he should try to be a disruption."

"He doesn't care!" Duo protested. "He's a cold blooded, emotionless, machine! I don't think he said 'Hi.' to me for the entire year we were partners. Fuck! Don't do this! He'll let you cut me into pieces!"

Revenant met Heero's eyes, measured the man behind those flat , blue, irises, and said, "I suppose we will see, won't we agent Maxwell, whether a man who comes to rescue his partner, solo, harbors any feelings for him?"

"You goddam son of a bitch!!" Duo screamed and surged against his manacles. The wound he had made in his wrist opened up and his violent motions covered his captors in blood.

One of the men tested the weight of his clever. Duo tried desperately to free his foot, his breathing harsh, ragged, and punctuated by a hoarse sound of distress. Heero tried to find the detachment, the solid core of ice that had been trained into him; the comforting mantra 'that it was all for peace' that had carried him through a war. When one of the guards drew an imaginary line with his finger across the first joints of Duo's toes and Duo let out a panicked moan that seemed dragged out of him despite his every effort, Heero found himself surging against his chains.

Heero felt blind, even though he could see. He felt deaf, even though he could hear shouts of warning. He felt uplifted, riding on a tide of adrenalin and panic that had one focus, one goal; save Duo. It wasn't conscious. It wasn't logical. It went against everything he had ever been taught. Even Duo was screaming for him to stop.

The chains dragged at his neck. Heero twisted, tangled his chains together, and pulled them all at once. The strength that had been given to him by a mad scientist, that was more than human, snapped the chain links. The broken lengths of chain snapped back on the recoil and took off flesh, but he was numb to it as he rolled, trusting that Revenant wanted him alive, that his guards would hesitate to shoot to kill.

The men holding Duo tripped over themselves as they struggled to get clear enough to pull weapons. Duo grabbed at them, kicked out, and used his chains as a weapon. He took out one man and Heero took out the others with deadly efficiency. Duo froze when a glock pressed against his forehead.

"Yuy, one move and I will splatter Maxwell's brains across the photos of his lovely street children," Revenant warned. 

"Bullshit! You need me!" Duo snarled as he ducked, rolled in a lightning move, and kicked upward into Revenant's gun hand. The gun unloaded into the floor a bare inch from his shoulder and the bullets ricocheted. Duo tucked in, hands over his head, to avoid them.A bullet sliced across Heero's cheek and passed just under his ear. He flinched and ducked as well. When he straightened again, Revenant was gone and a siren was just beginning to sound.

"You are a first rate, fuck up, Yuy!" Duo snarled as he uncurled."Just what the hell are you doing? What's your plan? He's going to have this place mobilized in under a second."

Heero flushed as he took weapons from the dead guards. He handed one to Duo before he found the keys to their manacles and unlocked them.

"Nothing to say, as usual," Duo seethed, but his hand was reaching out to check Heero's face wound. Heero grabbed it and pushed it away, noticing how much it was shaking.

"You have point," Heero conceded.

"Gee, thanks!" Duo sneered. "So it's all up to me?" When Heero nodded, Duo swore and pointed to the downed guards. "We need to get into their clothes, now, and get the hell out of here."

"Separate?" Heero deduced.

"Yeah. We'll meet down at the support struts, take a swim, and hope Trowa is monitoring," Duo told him.

They changed hurriedly, still pulling on the guard's uniforms as they moved cautiously down a corridor. When they reached an intersection, Duo snapped, "Get moving, Yuy. I'll chew you up and spit you out later." When Heero began to go, Duo grabbed a handful of his shirt and said, "Thanks Heero... for coming to get me."

Heero raised a hand and covered Duo's for the space of a second, ignoring Duo's wide eyed surprise, and then he was turning away and running down a corridor, forced to trust that Duo was well enough to make his own escape.

Duo stared after Heero, fisted the hand he had touched, and then let out a long breath. "I don't know what that was, Heero. I sure as hell would like to find out, but I have a job to do. Sorry, buddy."

Duo slowly leaned against a wall and lowered himself to the floor. When Revenant and his men came running up to him, he grinned and waved. "Guess I was too much of a liability."

Revenant flipped open his com unit. "Where's Yuy?"

"He just dived from the platform when my men tried to capture him," an awed voice replied.

Revenant scowled. "Then he's dead. No one could survive that."

A man came through the guards. He was tall and had a thick mustache. The pillbox hat that he was wearing had one plume and a number of war badges, and his uniform was gray and black and pressed in crisp lines. Duo recognized him and started.

"Senator Haspburg," Duo said,"Relena's right hand man."

The man nodded in acknowledgment as he turned to Revenant and said, "Yuy's not dead. You continue to underestimate these two. Send out sweeper ships." He shot narrowed eyes at Duo. "The time for cloak and dagger is over, Duo Maxwell. It is time for the wolves to take power and time to put the lambs back to pasture."

"Are we talking about farming?" Duo quipped with a sickly grin. "Seems to me that the wolves are always afraid of the sheep dogs."

"Agent Maxwell," Haspburg warned, "You will train my men, now. Any tricks, any hesitation, and I will see how very little of you is needed to accomplish that task. My physician will stand at your elbow with a saw and a micro laser and he will be waiting for my orders. Is that clear?"

He didn't expect an answer. He turned and started shouting more orders for Heero's capture.

"Even a Gundam Pilot can't survive long in these seas," Revenant sneered under his breath. "Look all you wish."

TBC 


	9. Wolves

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, attempted NCS, torture

Burning Candles

Wolves

Heero sat shivering under a blanket, wet hair in his face, as Trowa steered the boat to a safe distance. "He didn't follow," Heero ground out. "He didn't have any intention of leaving."

"Hopefully, he was able to keep his cover," Trowa said as he glared at the radar and satellite sensors for any signs of pursuit.

"Cover," Heero said derisively, shivered even more. "They've been torturing him, Trowa. If this is an operations of Une's, then the stakes must be very high for Duo to allow himself to suffer that much. They were going to cut off his foot, Trowa, just to make a point! I think they did already and... micro sewed it back on."

"If you compromised his situation there, he may already be dead," Trowa told him, brutally honest.

Heero raked a hand through his wet hair and looked anguished. "This was the problem all along. Somehow, Une knew that I wouldn't be able to keep my mission detachment where Duo was concerned."

Trowa replied accusingly, "We are in this position now, because of that failure."

Heero eyed him, remembering the flight with Duo, remembering how Duo had taken charge and said... "Duo knew you were here. How is that possible?"

Trowa frowned sharply. His hands worked on the controls for a full minute and then he replied, "Because we spoke together before he was kidnaped."

"About what?" Heero wondered sharply.

Trowa licked nervous lips and then sighed in defeat. "Une always knew that you would go after Duo eventually. She knew that Revenant was trying to contact you and that it was possible that he would succeed. You also had Quatre's help and his contacts are extensive. It was my job to keep you occupied, to allow you to do low level infiltration and observation while the real mission was going on around us."

Heero was suddenly colder inside than he was outside. "I am the best agent she has, Trowa," he protested. "How did I earn this kind of treatment?"

Trowa grimaced and then admitted, "It was my decision, not hers. After talking to Duo, it was clear that you had something that was closer than a working relationship. You were two cogs in a wheel for a year and everyone was betting it would turn into something more, eventually."

Heero felt heat scald his face. "I don't understand. We barely worked together. How could anyone think that we-"

Trowa made an exasperated sound. "Heero! The man brought you breakfast and lunch every day. You trusted each other implicitly. If he was one second calling in late, you were on your cell phone and asking for his status. When he had the flu, you asked the head medic at headquarters to see him personally at home. You stood around waiting for him to show up, every day, so that you could say goodbye to him before you left for the day. I have many more examples. When I was asked by Une to evaluate your competence for the infiltration, I had the same concerns about Duo's ability to remain detached."

Heero was furious. "So, you and Une are restricting us to small cases?"

"Isn't that what you wanted?" Trowa reminded him.

Heero seethed, "This is different. This is a mission that requires people with our skills."

"My skills," Trowa told him. "It was supposed to be my mission. I was the one who was supposed to be kidnaped, not Duo. You both compromised this mission, Duo by dropping his guard and being kidnaped and you by trying to save him."

And he had tried to, Heero thought, even against Duo's silent warnings.

Heero sat back against the steel wall behind him and made the back of his head beat against it several times before he asked, "So, Duo went in blind?"

Trowa, surprisingly shook his head. "No. We did speak about it. He did know that I was in this area and using the ship that we've been monitoring to spy on the platform. I'm sure he was bright enough to put two and two together and I'm sure that he is trying to accomplish my mission. He signaled us a few days ago with al fuel slick and we've been getting low power surges from the platform's bay.

Trowa skewered Heero with stern eyes. "Now that you know," he said, "we can stop playing this game. You managed to fail at the only thing that I required your skill to accomplish, to set the monitoring devices under the platform. You saw that Duo was in danger and you did exactly what we all suspected that you would."

Heero closed his eyes, seeing the truth of that accusation with sudden, brutal clarity. "I didn't know how I felt about Duo," he admitted. "We were in a partnership that was comfortable. We... I was enjoying it, enjoying the routine. The day that he was kidnaped, I was going to go after him. I was going to ask him... I suddenly wanted more from him. I hadn't really sorted out what that was though."

His confession was met by a heavy sigh from Trowa. "Now that you understand," Trowa said, "you must also understand that I can't allow you to participate in this mission any longer?"

Heero nodded, feeling stunned, but inside he was having a stronger urge to tell Trowa and Une to go to hell, to grab the nearest boat and rescue Duo. Where had the soldier gone, the man who could turn his back on anyone and finish his mission? Where was the man who was willing to sacrifice everything? That young man had been left behind at the end of the war, he realized, and the man he was now had found his heart.

"Go below decks and talk to Quatre," Trowa told him. "I don't have to tell you that all of this is classified?"

Heero shook his head and stood on legs that felt very weak He did as he was told, but he didn't call Quatre. He felt too sick, too betrayed, and too worried about Duo. He couldn't face anyone just then with his failings.

Revenant gathered up Duo's braid and rubbed his thumb along the soft hair. "You don't seem to be making any progress."

Duo was stretched out over his console, men standing around him and looking as angry as Revenant. "Can't help that you gave me mental midgets for students," Duo grumbled. He sat up with an effort, but Revenant didn't let go of his braid."Whatever it is that lets Gundam pilots operate a zero system type device, you guys don't have it."

"My associate's men are nearly in place," Revenant told him. "With or without these men operating the devices, we will move against the government using them. The difference will be whether you live to see it or die in pieces."

The doctor moved up by Duo's elbow and Duo shuddered. Not his braid! he thought, fear gripping him, but he had suspected that Revenant had been saving it, wanting the emotional impact to count.

Instead of cutting it though, Revenant dragged him out of his chair by it. Duo stumbled and fell, but Revenant continued to drag him along the floor. "Chain him to this," he ordered his men, pointing to a docking ring. A long cable ran through it and along the bay floor, attaching each machine together to a power source. If the ring was disengaged, the cable would snake back into a recess and take Duo with it. Duo eyed the opening. There wasn't an inch of room to spare around the cable. He would die a very messy death.

"Now," Revenant told Duo after he was chained. "I'm going to give you one last chance to cooperate. These machines are fueled and ready for operation. If my men can't mentally control them, I will give the command to send these machines to my associate and you will not survive it."

Duo managed to look as sick at the prospect as he felt. Revenant jerked on his hair and watched Duo's face.

"I know this means something to you," Revenant told him, "but I'm saving it instead of cutting it off. If you fail, I intend to dip it in your blood and send it to Une. " He said that with a sneer.

Revenant crouched by Duo and continued to hold his braid. He looked into Duo's eyes and Duo stared steadily back. "After everything, you still rebel. Amazing. What do you hope to gain? Everyone you are fighting for has left you to me, has left you to torture and death." He touched Duo's feet with his free hand, caressed the swollen flesh there, the obvious signs of violence. Then his fingers caressed up to Duo's ankles, touching one after the other. Duo held perfectly still as if he didn't care, but inwardly he was cringing. "You bait me and you mock me," Revenant continued, "You refuse to save yourself. I don't think you want to die. I think you want to goad me into making a mistake. I have yet to figure out what that mistake is. Even my associate hasn't been able to divine it."

"Guess it hasn't occurred to you that I might just be a masochist," Duo grinned at him fiercely.

Again, Revenant appraised him for a long moment and then he straightened, letting Duo's braid slide out of his hand. It fell at Duo's feet. "Bring the child here."

There was movement and men threw someone at Duo's feet. It was Jake, a large bruise purpling one cheek and his right eye almost swollen closed. He was wearing the same jumper as Duo and he was barefoot. Shivering, he came up on his knees and glared through his long, blonde hair at everyone. When his good eye fell on Duo, it raked over him, and then he sneered.

"Fucking idiot!" Jake said to Revenant contemptuously. "You think Mr. M is going to cave because you threaten to kill me? He thinks I'm a fucking cockroach. He'd like me dead so he could get my gang away from me. He wants to turn them all into goody goody orphans."

Revenant quirked an eyebrow and then he ordered, "Chain him to Agent Maxwell."

"Shit," Duo said under his breath, shaky and sick.

Revenant smiled then. "Willing to suffer anything, aren't we, Agent Maxwell? But will you let one of your 'children' suffer your fate as well? This boy was in many of your photos and always standing next to you. You may delude yourself into thinking that I'm lying about killing the others, but... here he is... and here he will die if you do not cooperate."

"You must be desperate," Duo shot back. "To go to this much trouble."

Revenant looked superior. "Not so much trouble. He made it easy by following one of my men. He made it as far as the coast. Very admirable."

Duo was astonished. "How the hell-?"

"I was coming for some payback!" Jake shouted furiously as jerked against his chains. "I wasn't coming after this loser!"

"Be that as it may," Revenant told him in distaste, "Your fate is the same. Agent Maxwell will train my men, now, or you and he will suffer the same punishment. You will be forced into that small opening over there when the docking cable retracts. I wonder how much of you will actually fit?"

Jake stared at the opening and went pale, even though he refused to look anything but fierce. "Fuck you!" was his only response.

Duo sighed. "So, we're giving up on that piece of crap test model and working with the real thing?" Revenant nodded. "And they're going to be tied down to this cable while we work?"

"Correct," Revenant confirmed. "You will never be trusted with the free operation of these machines."

"Okay..." Duo allowed himself to slump as he looked with bleak eyes at Revenant. "Bring them over here. I'll try one more time."

"Good," Revenant said and his relief was obvious despite his effort not to show it. Duo wondered if he were facing his own death penalty.

Revenant turned to order his men into position. Duo looked at Jake and Jake gave him only a hint of anguish before his eyes turned to steel again. Don't worry, Duo thought. Revenant just made the mistake I've been waiting for.

Heero's hacked into the communications array of the Celestial Covenant while he was crouched in the narrow bathroom with his laptop on his lap. Trowa was still above, talking to the ship. Heero wasn't allowed to participate, or to know anything about what they were doing, and that ignorance went against the grain of everything that he had been taught. He had to know what they were doing, he had to know if his mistakes had caused Duo's death.

"-low level signals are still coming from the platform, but they could be on automatic," Trowa was saying. The words sped across the screen, unscrambled expertly by Heero's program.  
"We need to move in," a Captain Renald replied. "Une's trust in Maxwell's ability to figure out his mission on the fly disturbs me greatly, I'm sure you know, that I'm in favor of a full scotched Earth strike. We'll sort out the bodies after we take out their ability to attack."

Trowa's scorn was clear even in typed words. "There are high level officials involved in this. We know two of them. The third one, the leader, may have gone to the platform with the last batch of workers. We have to give Duo an ample chance to identify him and to, hopefully, find out their plans. He should be able to give a signal, unless he's dead, for us to move in. I intend to give him every opportunity to do just that. From what Yuy's told me, he's suffered torture and is aware of his mission there. This is not guesswork any longer. Duo is a Gundam Pilot. If it can be done, he will do it."

Renald still seemed skeptical. "Gundam pilots are not invincible, Barton. Put yourself in his place. What are the chances that you would have accomplished the mission?'

"I don't know ," Trowa replied, "but I'm not Duo. He's always been the strongest when it came to hardship and imprisonment. I never worried, during the war, that he would find his way free somehow."

"What about Yuy?" Captain Renald asked.

"He's a good soldier. He does what he's ordered to," Trowa replied, but then he paused and added thoughtfully, "Which is why it amazed me that he decided to search for Duo. Une had told him to stay out of the case." Another pause. "I think I should check on him. I'll call again in an hour."

"Roger and out," The Captain said and logged off.

Heero was already out of the bathroom, logged off his laptop, and lying on his bunk before Trowa appeared in the doorway. He had kept the laptop at his side and he simply stared at the ceiling. Trowa leaned against the doorway, arms crossed over his chest.

"A laptop is cold company." Trowa said. When Heero frowned, not looking at him, he sighed. "You love him."

Heero did look at him then, sharply.

Trowa quirked an eyebrow. "You were always worrying about that idiot during the war. Now you're breaking all the rules, and your training, to chase after him. You're about to go and rescue him again, aren't you?"

"No," Heero replied.

Trowa snorted. "You are a terrible liar, even when the lie is only one word. Your eyes have always given you away"  
"Are you going to confine me?" Heero wondered, not bothering to try to lie again.

"Do you think that I can?" Trowa wondered. Heero's glare was his answer. Trowa chuckled, but it was a dark sound. "You are going to be the death of me, I think, but I, above anyone else, should know about love and what lengths I would go to to save Quatre."

"What do you intend to do?" Heero asked as he sat up.

"Go with you, of course," Trowa replied as he left the doorway and began going through a weapons locker. "I have to make sure you don't screw up this mission." He pointed a rifle barrel at Heero's head and glared. "You'll save Duo on my terms, Yuy. People aren't going to die because of your love, understand?"

"Yes," Heero replied, nodding stiffly once.

Trowa tilted the barrel up and shook his head. "After this, you might as well say goodbye to ever being anything above a detective. Your career in ops ends here."

Heero thought about that for a long moment and then he replied truthfully, "I think that's what I want, Trowa. I think it's what Duo wanted as well. We're tired of fighting."

Trowa looked sympathetic, but he said, "It's all I've known. I can't imagine living any other way."

"Then please be the one to be kidnaped next time," Heero told him angrily as he stood and began putting on his gear.

Trowa snorted in grim humor, but Heero was thinking about Trowa's words. Love. A permanent, low level job. No more missions. No more worrying about the end of the world. Just nine to five and.... Duo at the end of the day. The warmth he felt at the thought of that shocked him. Duo, not leaving and going his separate way, but Duo coming with him, going home with him; taking their comfortable routine into their personal life. Heero suddenly wanted that more than anything else.

"Yuy!" Trowa snapped. Heero looked at him, startled, and Trowa said angrily, "Focus!"

Heero nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to find his 'mission mode', tried to find that place within him that wasn't filled with his panic for Duo, the place within him that would follow Trowa's orders and not get them all killed.

TBC

see Kracken's original, published yaoi fiction, The Angel Within, at under Kracken Latest updates at:  
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	10. Payback

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this Warning:Male/male sex, violence, graphic, language, torture, attempted NCS.

Burning Candles

Payback

Heero crouched on the deck, watching the sun go down as he went over his part of Trowa's plan in his head. All of his equipment was already strapped on his body and a small bag of explosives and extra ammo was by his right foot. His hand checked a knife at his boot again and again, a nervous gesture.

Trowa seemed more relaxed, though Heero doubted that he was. He leaned on the ships's rail, staring at the waves and letting the cold breeze toss his bangs back. His green eyes were inscrutable. In black, he looked too tall and too thin, though his large shoulders betrayed his strength. He had throwing knives at his waist and a rifle slung from his shoulder.

Heero started, the knife half jerking out of it's sheathe, as his cell phone vibrated. The way Trowa suddenly straightened, he guessed that Trowa's cell was doing the same. Heero looked at the read out on the tiny screen and didn't recognize the number. When text began scrolling, he brought the phone close to his face so that he could read it on the lighted screen. He was dimly aware of Trowa doing the same to his cell.

"Knock, knock," Heero read aloud.

"Same here," Trowa affirmed. "Duo?"

"How?" Heero wondered and saw more text scrolling.

'Maxwell here. You guys need to come up with better security protocols. A baby could have hacked into it. Anyway, down to business. I tapped into the weapon's array and the platform's main frame. I'm downloading all contents to Une. Mission must not be compromised until confirmed retrieval. Situation under control.'

The screen went blank as the call disconnected. Heero stared at it for a long moment before he gripped the cell in one hand. Trowa felt very warm standing next to him as he said to Heero, "Duo's decision. You will respect it and follow his order."

They had planned to infiltrate; scramble the surveillance devices, and download from the observation array; the same plan Heero had attempted to carry out before his capture. The information first and then Duo's life. That was the list of priorities. Trowa's cold gaze had been a warning, threatening violence if Heero decided to ignore that order. That gaze hadn't changed. Trowa's firm grip on his rifle was almost unnecessary.

Heero straightened and left the deck, cell phone in one hand and his bag of destruction in the other. He went below deck and sat on his cot. Putting the bag down, he cradled the cell phone in both hands and waited.

The cell phone vibrated. Heero unclenched his hands in surprise and read on the tiny screen;

'Hey, just between you and me, Heero, thanks for coming after me. Crazy, but nice. Since I'm probably not making it out of here alive, I think I can say this without being scared as shit that you will get your hands on me to break every bone in my body. I love you. Always have, I guess. This last year was the best. I wanted to get past the partner thing and try for something more, but I didn't work my nerve up in time. I didn't want to ruin what we had if you were straight, or just not interested, and I have a healthy respect for my life. So, there you are; stupid, too late, story of my life. Gotta go. Mr. Sadist isn't happy with me again. I might lose more than my toes this time. I don't think I'm going to be in one piece long enough for Une to confirm that she has all the files intact. I'm going to have to stick with this and keep sending them as long as I can. Just wish Jake hadn't shown up. Stupid kid. Just like his foster father, I guess.'

The line went dead. Heero stood, shoving the cell into a pocket. He hefted his bag onto one shoulder, checked his weapons one last time, and then squared his jaw. Duo needed him. Duo was not going to die for this mission... and neither was Jake.

Getting past Trowa was another matter. The man couldn't watch the entire ship, or the three boats attached to it. Darkness was complete and it was Heero's friend, as was the stiff wind that covered any noise that he might make. He waited until Trowa went into the control room to call Une or the contact boat, and then he lowered a boat and climbed down to it. Setting it adrift, he waited until the waves had rolled him far from the main boat, before he turned on the engine.

He didn't have much time before Trowa realized and tried to come after him. Heero was well aware how swiftly and silently death could come from a trained Gundam pilot. He had to watch for Trowa and the enemy at the same time. He had to foil their security and keep from being stopped by the one man who could stop him. All for Duo, he told himself firmly, and wondered if Duo would hate him for it when he finally did rescue him. 


	11. Wings

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own this and I don't make any money off of it.  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, language, violence, torture, attempted NCS

Burning Candles

Wings

"Get them launched! Now! Now!" a voice was shouting as Heero plastered himself against a wall and felt a wave of heat wash over him. The hanger was a disaster zone and Heero scrambled mentally to make sense out of it. A machine was in flames and sagged in it's supports. Burning shrapnel lay everywhere and several men were down. A fire had started on the roof, flames catching on sprayed oil and fuel and whatever bits of wood it could find. As he watched, another machine exploded. Heero ducked down and metal clanged and clattered all around him.

"Kill him!" That same voice was screaming. "Maxwell is doing this! Launch the machines! He will die and we will regain control!"

Men were running everywhere, some grabbing firefighting equipment and others simply fleeing. Heero ticked them off as unimportant as he uncoiled from his defensive crouch, and then saw his target, a man running for a console with fearful eyes. Heero aimed his rifle and took the man out.

"Intruder!" the call came from several points in the hanger.

Heero spotted Revenant pointing at him with a hand gun. The man was a crack shot. Heero dove side ways and bullets hit the wall where he'd been standing. Revenant's men joined their leader and began to shoot as well, keeping Heero pinned down as Revenant strode for the console himself.

Revenant's action's had something to do with Duo, Heero was certain, something that would kill his partner. Heero's eyes raked the hanger, searching frantically. He spotted Duo and Jake crouched near the machines and his heart clenched sickeningly as a third machine exploded and large chunks of metal landed all around them.

Go to Duo or stop Revenant? Heero made his choice in a split second and sprinted for the console, bullets zinging all around him as he took aim at Revenant. Revenant was fearless in his determination, though, and he ignored his danger, even when he took a bullet in his side from Heero's rifle as he hit buttons on the console.

There was a loud clang and a whirl of a motor. Heero suddenly understood what Revenant was attempting to do. He fired one more bullet and saw Revenant fall as he turned and ran for Duo. He knew it was too late. He knew that he had made a fatal mistake. It was a shock to find Duo and Jake still alive, sprawled on the cold floor. Duo saw Heero and weakly held up a small tool with a wan grin.

"I can still pick a lock in record time," Duo chuckled and then coughed as he curled up around some pain.

Jake was feebly trying to sit up and get out from Duo's protective cover. He was cursing. "Stupid shit! I can take care of myself! Why didn't you fucking say you could pick the lock?"

Duo sobered and his expression went dark as Heero cautiously crouched beside him. "Before I heard the confirmation code, we weren't going to escape, that's why."

Jake was dumbfounded and then furious. He began to shout, but Heero cut him off as he tossed a gun to Jake. "I know you can handle one, so cover us."

Jake gripped the gun expertly, nodded once, and then sat up to look for targets. "Look at 'em run. Chicken shits."

"They know they've lost." Duo told him, "But don't underestimate cornered rats. They bite."

"Mobile?" Heero asked anxiously.

"No, neither of us," Duo replied. "Backup?"

"None," Heero admitted.

Duo looked astonished. "Heero? What the hell have you been drinking lately? Stupid juice?"

"I wasn't given permission for this extraction," Heero admitted as he tested the chains.

"I didn't think they'd give you permission to mess up my operation," Duo snapped back angrily.

"I didn't-" Heero began to protest, but he had been going to. He didn't finish the sentence. The truth was evident. He broke the links in the chain with a great flex of muscles and then ran the links through Duo and Jake's manacles.

"Bug out of here, Jake," Duo ordered as Heero helped him to his feet. "Don't wait for us. Save your skin."

Jake sneered. "I came here for payback. I'm getting it. Running's for whooses."

"I need to blow these machines," Duo snarled. "I can only do it one at a time. Heero's going to cover my back. Both of us are probably going to die. You feel like dying too?"

Jake stared at him. "Is this one of those things... where you give everything you got, no guarantees?"

"Yeah," Duo admitted. "It is."

"Your both gonna die... for people you don't know?" Jake persisted.

"Yes," Heero replied steadily as he took out a knife and another gun from his pack and held them out to Duo.

"Yes, for lots of people we don't know." Duo said as he took them.

"Why?!" Jake demanded in furious anguish and then, as if he couldn't hold it in, he demanded, "How you gonna take care of me if you get splattered here?"

Duo looked pained as he checked the clip in his gun. "You count, more than anything, Jake, but I have to do this. Thanks for coming after me. That means a lot to me. I..." He choked and then went on, forcing himself to steadiness, "I wish we could have had time to really do the father and son thing."

"Father?" Jake snorted, but he seemed almost in tears now. "You ain't that much older than me, Mr. M. More like shitty older brother.... and if you think I'm gonna leave even a shitty older brother to get wasted, then I'll kick your ass."

Duo blinked and then tried to sound forceful. "Go! Now! I mean it!"

"Fuck you!" Jake snarled and turned his back to look for targets.

Duo exchanged looks with Heero and Heero could only shrug. They didn't have time to force Jake to leave. Duo nodded in resignation and then turned his thoughts to the machines.

"Stop!" Revenant shouted from across the hanger. He was standing with blood running from a head wound and the gunshot hole in his side. He had six men with him and they were all training automatic rifles at them. "Stop or die!"

"I guess we die then!" Jake shouted back and began firing. Heero joined him and Revenant's men ducked behind equipment boxes. Revenant kept standing, though, and he raised a remote with a grim smile on his face .

"Duo! What is that?" Heero demanded.

Duo was startled out of his concentration. He looked just as Revenant pushed a button on the remote. Duo's entire body convulsed. There wasn't any pain. The controller didn't work, but Duo's body was still trying to react in sheer anticipation.

"Duo!" Heero called to him fearfully. "What's wrong?".

Duo bit his own tongue, wrestling with his shuddering body and his twitching nerves. He had a job to do. He couldn't fail. He couldn't... Heero's gun fired and a bullet took Revenant between the eyes in a shower of blood, flesh, and bone.

"Die, fucker, die!" Jake was shouting hoarsely in glee.

Bullets splattered all around them. Revenant's men had their orders from someone higher than him and they weren't willing to give up just yet.

Duo's mind detached itself from his body. He touched the inner controls of the machines one by one as quickly as he could, ignoring the chatter of the communications array that he had mentally hacked into. Reinforcements were coming, he knew, but he doubted they would be in time. He had to do this himself. He had to destroy everyone of the machines rather than take the chance that the enemy would be able to override and activate their mission programming.

Machines began exploding. Pieces of metal began showering them. The heat and flames grew. Fuel and oil sprayed everywhere and caught fire.

"I don't wanna burn!" Jake almost whimpered, but he didn't stop firing his gun. "Clip!" he shouted and Heero tossed him one across Duo's body. He caught it deftly and reloaded as he cried, "We gotta get out of here! Mr. M, hurry!"

Duo expected Jake to bolt. Maybe he understood a little of why Duo was willing to give his life, but Duo thought that the boy was too young to want pay that kind of price himself. Heero would guard him, Duo knew. Heero would give his life, because it was only a matter of time before Revenant's men risked getting a clear shot through flames and falling machine pieces.

Another machine exploded. Every machine had inner, self diagnostic nano bots. Duo had found it ridiculously easy to use the controlling device to control them as well. By pouring sugar into the fuel, he had guaranteed that the casings would be opened to check for damage, That had allowed Duo to send the nano bots outside of the machines and into their communication arrays. By telling the bots that there was an error, he had been able to fool them into uploading and downloading files from the platform's core to correct it. Sending those files to Une, and tapping into outside communications, had been harder. He had searched for and found a small protocol that allowed for remote communications relay and reprogramming in the field. Protected nine ways to Sunday, most of Duo's time had been spent hacking into it and convincing the machines that they were in crises and needed to employ it. That's where Revenant's men had come into play. Duo had allowed their fumbling attempts to control the weapons. The machines had responded as if to an enemy threat. Asking for and receiving new orders had been their response. Now Duo was making use of his last modification, live wires in the fuel tanks. He simply had to concentrate long enough to order the bots to shoot current through those lines. As exhausted and filled with pain as he was, that was extremely difficult.

Heero grabbed a slab of metal that had fallen near them and used it as a makeshift shield. It was hot, an insulated edge on fire.

Duo finally gained control of his body as it finally stopped trying to go into convulsions. His concentration sharpened. Two more machines exploded. Men shouted. Part of the hanger peeled back with the force and the cold salt wind blasted into the hanger.

Duo felt his connection to the machine's control systems suddenly cease. Duo started and blinked stupidly. "I'm out!" Duo shouted in warning. "Someone must have taken their head out of their ass and turned off manual controls."

"Get out of here, Jake!" Heero shouted at the boy. He lifted an explosive from his pack, it's trigger covered. He flipped that cover off with a thumb. He could see men regrouping, looking desperate.

"Oh, you brought toys!' Duo exclaimed with a grin as he took the explosive from Heero. "You take Jake. I'm down and out. I'll cover you."

"No," Heero told him. "You're my partner. I'm staying."

Duo shouted back angrily, "Jake's a civilian! He needs extraction, Yuy."

Heero shook his head stubbornly. "He can save himself. My place is with you... always has been."

Duo was shocked, hearing deeper meaning to that simple statement. "Heero...."

"I'm staying," Heero insisted. "The things that you told me on my cell phone. I... I feel the same way. I didn't know that... not until you were gone."

"Oh." Duo looked as if he had been handed heaven, but then he shook himself. "Well, it's nice that one crazy Shinigami and a completely repressed super soldier can find each other... right before they die.'

"And you even managed to have a son," Jake snarled, "Now shut the fuck up and do something!"

Heero and Duo both looked at Jake. A bullet whizzed past his blonde bangs, ruffling them.

"Gotta watch your asses," Jake growled. "Can't do that runnin' away!" and he held out his hand for another clip.

Heero tossed it to him. Jake reloaded and said through gritted teeth, "Guess it's time to give everything, huh?"

"Yeah," Duo replied and throttled emotions as he told Jake, "I'm going to toss this into the machines. It will, hopefully, take them out... It will probably take us out with them. Scorched earth."

Jake was white, his eyes wide. He didn't look at them as he asked shakily, "We're saving lots and lots of people, right? Including my kids?"

"Yeah," Duo replied. "Including them."

Jake wiped sweat and salt from his brow and snapped harshly, "Then get it done, Mr. M."

Duo's thumb slid over to the detonation button. His thumb began putting pressure on it.

The hanger doors suddenly opened rapidly on their railings with loud noises and men poured in, Preventer agents with guns firing. Duo's thumb froze. He swallowed hard and sat down heavily. Very carefully, he flicked the cover back over the detonation button.

Heero sat down beside him, gun still held poised, bleeding from flesh wounds.

"What the fuck now?!" Jake shouted in consternation.

"The calvary," Duo breathed and felt himself shaking with relief. He leaned against Heero and Heero slowly and uncertainly slid an arm around him to support him. Even with their feelings for each other revealed, it was going to be a process to open up and explore those feelings. They had spent a war, and a year as partners, ignoring them and pretending that they weren't there.

"Hey!" Jake shouted at the agents as he struggled to his feet and stumbled after them, his broken arm tucked close to his body and his gun nosing for targets, "Make sure you leave some of those fuckers for me!"

"He's going to make a good agent," Heero said, staring after him.

"Yeah, makes me proud," Duo replied. He gripped Heero's hand as his body finally reached the end of its strength. He said to Heero fiercely, as unconsciousness began to claim him. "Go make sure he lives to be one." He didn't let go of Heero right away, though. As his eyes lost focus, he warned, "I'm not forgetting what you said, either. When we're back home, we're going to talk, right?"

Heero gripped his hand. "Yes, we'll talk, Duo. I promise."

Duo smiled and let the world slide away, confident that Heero was there to take care of Jake, the mission, and himself.

TBC 


	12. Normal

Kracken

Disclaimer:I don't own them and I don't make any money off of this.  
Warning:Male/male sex, graphic, torture, attempted NCS, language, violence.

Burning Candles

Normal

"Morning. What's up?"

Heero didn't look aside from his computer as Duo Maxwell slid into a chair by his desk, long braid snaking down and swinging as he sighed and stretched out his long legs.

"Evidence car stolen, North side," Heero told him. "No suspects."

"Witnesses?"

"One, a night guard.."

"Reliable?."

"Unknown."

A woman walked by and deposited two steaming cups into Duo's hands. He gave the tea to Heero and kept the coffee himself.

"You're an angel," he told her, sighed, and sipped gingerly.

"Suggestions?" Heero asked, ignoring the interruption..

"I'll check out the lot, ask the attendants some questions. You check out the whereabouts of anyone connected to the case the car was being held for," Duo told Heero and then stood up again. "Info." He held out a hand and Heero deposited a chip onto his palm. Duo grunted, pocketed it, and walked off.

"How the mighty have fallen," an agent said at another desk, "Car thefts? Do you think those two will die of boredom?"

"I would," another agent grunted, "but that's what you get for breaking the rules. Theft and missing persons, the two lamest departments in the force."

Ignoring them, Heero worked on his part of the case during the morning and then returned to his desk at noon. He found his lunch waiting there for him in styrofoam containers; rice with pork and tea without any sugar. Duo was there as well, sprawled in a chair and eating a sub sandwich and a soda, his report chip waiting next to Heero's computer. They ate in silence, Heero going over Duo's interviews with the attendants.

"Any new leads?" Heero asked.

"Boyfriend of the female defendant," Duo replied after a long drink of soda."Possible theft to get the case thrown out."

"Alibi?"

"Night club. No witnesses. I'll check some chop shops in the area and some alleyways for the car. "

"Check in at six."

"Will do. Later."

Duo chucked empty wrappers into the trash and walked away.

"I heard how bad he was hurt in the last mission," a female agent said sympathetically. "Three weeks of reconstructive surgery and hospitalization."

"He is limping. No wonder Une put them on the easy jobs," another replied.

"No, that's not what I heard," the first said and lowered her voice, "They both ASKED for the easy jobs."

"Asked for them? Who does that?" the second agent demanded incredulously.

"THEY do," the first replied.

Heero grunted and tried to tune them out as he did his research.

At five thirty, Duo appeared wearing his coat and carrying Heero's coat slung over one arm. He tossed it, Heero caught it deftly, and then put it on. Together, they left Preventer headquarters and stood outside on the sidewalk, traffic zipping by.

Heero reached out, snagged a loop of Duo's pants, and pulled him against him. Duo grinned and they kissed long and deep.

"Good day?" Duo asked when he was allowed to reclaim his lips.

"Yes. You?" Heero replied

Duo looked relaxed and happy. "Perfect," he said. "Becoming street detectives was the best decision we ever made."

Heero smirked. "The best?"

Duo hooked an arm around Heero's waist and walked with him towards their apartment. "No, not the best. Getting together with you was the best," he corrected. He looked sideways at Heero, his purple eyes glinting. "During that time when Revenant was cutting pieces off of me, I really thought that I had messed up by never telling you how I really felt about you. I thought, even if you did feel the same way, that you'd never want the things that I do, well aside from a tightly scheduled day job hunting down stray cats. " He chuckled and then went serious. "But you do want what I want. You do want to help me with the kids and make a difference outside of blowing things up and giving our all half a world away."

"I do, " Heero told him. "I'm tired of killing, of bleeding, of seeing the people that I care about suffer. I want... to live quietly, but still make a difference, to know that, at the end of the day, you will be there and we will live quietly together. I want to stop burning our candles and live our lives in peace."

Duo hugged him tightly in appeciation and then said impishly, "We have about an hour before we have to go see the kids, love."

"An hour?" Heero felt warm and happy as he slid a hand down Duo's side to the roundness of his hip under his uniform pants. "If we spend five minutes eating dinner, that leaves fifty minutes for... other things."

"Could do a lot in fifty minutes," Duo agreed with a sexy chuckle.

"Yes, " Heero replied as his hand squeezed Duo's hip suggestively. "Let's find out how much."

The End

see Kracken's original, published yaoi fiction, The Angel Within, at under Kracken Latest updates at:  
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